Offline methods for authentication in a client/server authentication system

ABSTRACT

A method for providing authentication of a user of a recipient unit when the recipient unit is off-line includes storing one or a plurality of challenge-reply sets associated with an article based on an on-line communication with a sender unit. Each of the challenge-reply sets includes at least a challenge-reply pair for use in off-line authentication of the user for a particular resource available through the recipient unit. When the user is offline, the method includes selecting at least one of the plurality of stored challenge-reply sets for off-line authentication of the user for the particular resource available through the recipient unit.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application entitledMETHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING ELECTRONIC MESSAGE AUTHENTICATION,having Ser. No. 10/849,402, filed on May 19, 2004, having as inventorsVoice et al. and owned by instant Assignee, which is a continuation inpart of U.S. patent application entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FORSECURELY PROVIDING IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION USING TRANSLUCENTIDENTIFICATION MEMBER, having Ser. No. 10/748,523, filed on Dec. 30,2003, having as inventors Chiviendacz et al. and owned by instantAssignee.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The invention relates generally to method and apparatus for providingauthentication between a user and a target resource or informationsending entity, and more particularly to methods and apparatus thatemploy soft tokens or hard tokens for providing mutual authenticationbetween a user and a target resource or information sending entity.

BACKGROUND

Mutual authentication systems and methods are known that attempt toauthenticate a user or recipient of information that is being providedby a content service provider or other target resource that is, forexample, accessible through an online communication link such as throughthe Internet, an intranet, or any other suitable wireless ornon-wireless network. Such methods and apparatus attempt to thwartmalicious exploits by hackers and others that attempt to steal a user'sidentity. For example, a malicious entity may send an email using theaddress of a legitimate bank and directs the recipient to a “counterfeitwebsite”. The recipient, believing that it is a legitimate site, may betricked into providing information such as an account number andpassword that can be used by the malicious entity to access therecipient's online account. The problem may be particularly acute in theconsumer world where conventional methods of online mutualauthentication may be very complex, typically requiring expensivehardware deployment and complex user interactions that make such mutualauthentication techniques impractical. As such, it would be desirable toprovide a system and method that allows the confirmation of users orrecipients that are accessing an intended target organization, (i.e.sending entity) in a relatively inexpensive but secure manner.

Two factor authentication techniques are known that, for example, use afirst authentication factor to authenticate an end user's identity and asecond factor that is used for authentication to supplement the username and password typically used in the first factor authentication. Theconcept of a second factor is that a user can authenticate usingsomething that they know (i.e. their password) and something that theyhave (i.e. the second factor which may be, for example, a hardwaretoken). Typically the second factor mechanisms are hardware based andare physically distributed to the end user. For example, timesynchronous tokens are known and are sometimes referred to asmulti-factor authentication techniques. Several known techniques aredescribed further below.

Also, various methods for performing authentication of a targetorganization in connection with Internet applications are known thatinclude, for example, secure socket layer server authentication whichprovides certification from a trusted third party based on the identityof the organization hosting a given web application. However, this canrequire the user to perform the manual step of double clicking on anon-screen icon and reading through information. The requirement ofmanual action often precludes it from being performed consistently and,thus, undermines the effectiveness of the method. In addition, clientsecurity plug-in applications are also known that involve an end userdownloading and installing client side software which provides a visualindication of when the user is communicating with the legitimate site.However, it can be burdensome for end users to download and installsoftware or to go through several manual steps to confirm the identityof the target organization.

In addition, both user and target organization authentication methodscan be impractical when extending to other channels of communicationsuch as interactive voice response systems or communication throughmobile devices, such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants,Internet appliances, or other mobile devices, as they can rely on a userdisplay and entry methods unique to web based applications.

Ensuring that a sent email message or other electronic message has beensent by a sender that can be trusted, also referred to as beingauthentic, helps ensure against theft of important information byunscrupulous parties and can help limit spam and phishing. Phishing is aform of Internet scam that usually involves the mass sending of emailswhich appear to be from a legitimate organization such as a bank orother financial institution or other organization. These emails oftendirect the recipient to a fraudulent website or form where he or she istricked into divulging personal or financial information. An alternativephishing scam may not ask for such information but, upon entering theURL, execute a download of a keystroke-logging program that lets thephisher harvest information from the recipient's machine. Theinformation can then be used for identity theft and fraud.

Phishing attacks can be costly and can drain a company's resourcessince, for example a large number of attacks can be run against targetcompanies in large volumes and billions of phishing messages passthrough filtering systems that can slow down email delivery, use upvaluable processing times of servers and can ultimately result in theloss of important financial data to unscrupulous parties.

Several solutions are known that attempt to address this problem.Because phishing attacks often begin with large volumes of email sentfrom a forged sending address, efforts to reduce spam email may besomewhat effective in reducing the number of phishing attacks. Forexample, one method referred to as Sender Policy Framework, anoriginator of a message or originator domain publishes in a directory orother suitable repository, legitimate sending computer addresses whichare verified by receiving message transfer agents. The message transferagent may verify a received message via a DNS server (domain nameserver). However, this technique can require widespread adoption ofSPF-enabled message transfer agents which can potentially be costly toimplement and deploy.

Another technique referred to as Coordinated Spam Reduction Initiativeagain requires originators in an originator domain to publish legitimatesending computer addresses which are verified by receiving messagetransfer agents in a relatively similar manner as described above.

Another technique requires domains to digitally sign email which isverified by the receiving message transfer agent via DNS servers. Again,this can require the widespread adoption of modified versions of messagetransfer agents.

Another technique uses the S/MIME protocol wherein sending individualsor domains digitally sign emails that are verified by receiving incomingmessage transfer agents or user email clients. This can require specialemail client features or recipient message transfer agents that are notcurrently supported in web based email clients.

Another technique employs secret images that are shared between a senderand a recipient. As understood, a personalized image is sent by a userto an authentication server. The server stores the recipient sent image.The authentication server may then send the personalized image to therecipient with an email and the user seeing the image recognizes that itis the one he sent. Also, during logon to a site, the server may includethe image in the logon page so that a user trusts the login page whenthe user sees their personalized image (see e.g.,www.passmarksecurity.com). Among other drawbacks, this system appears touse the same image for multiple logins until the shared image is changedand may require the recipient to choose and send the image to a sendingserver.

In addition, other systems are known which attempt to provide, insteadof sender authentication, recipient authentication. For example, U.S.Pat. No. 5,712,627 discloses, among other things, an issuedidentification card that has indicum at one of the addressable positionson an assigned card. The card may have rows and columns with differentnumbers, characters or symbols that are addressable by the rows andcolumns. To determine whether a person seeking access to data isauthorized to obtain requested access, the identification card isdistributed to authorized users. A requesting person seeking accessprovides the indicia at one or more addressable positions on the card asspecified by a security system. To notify the person which indicum toenter and send back, the system selects coordinate indicia known to bepresent on a particular card. The recipient must then send back theindicia located at the address sent by the security system. If theindicia matches that assigned to the person seeking access then accessis granted. However, such systems do not resolve the problem withrespect to phishing since the system provides authentication of areceiver and not a sender and requests that a person seeking accessidentify themselves to the system and the system requires entry andsending by the user of information located on the security card.

Other authentication systems are also known that have been employed, forexample, in the military, numeral cipher/authentication systems havebeen used that employ cards that are held by a sender and recipient. Atransmission is authenticated for example by using a challenge and replyauthentication scheme. A sender of an electronic transmission forexample may use the card and randomly select a row and column andtransmit the row and column identifiers as a challenge. For a reply, rowand column identifiers are used to look up an alphabetical letter whichis then communicated back. As such, the sender can be assured that thereceiver is in possession of a card. However, the authentication of thesender to the receiver is typically done by repeating the same challengeand reply in reverse, and both sender and receiver must be in possessionof the same authentication card to achieve mutual authentication.

Another technique also uses a card that includes rows and columns ofinformation on both the sender and receiver side, however, thistransmission authentication scheme is used to authenticatetransmissions. For example during transmission authentication, columnsof transmission authentication diagraphs are located on the back of acipher table and used to authenticate a sender. Column assignments aremade by a designated representative such as a commander of a unit. Thecolumn assignments are known to both the sender and receiver apriori.Transmission authentication diagraphs are used only once. The firstunused authenticator in the assigned column is used and a line is drawnthrough that authenticator to preclude its reuse. Such schemes do notutilize a random selection of information on the card and do not utilizethe sending of coordinate information since the column information isknown apriori. As such, only the authentication information isapparently communicated. If the sender sends authentication informationand it is valid as determined by the recipient, the recipient crossesthe authentication information off the card. The next timeauthentication is required, the next authentication information in thesame column is then used. As such, a sequential and non-random approachis used. However, if the authentication card of a recipient is lost orobtained by an unscrupulous party, they would know how to act as asender since they know which authentication information is next in thecolumn since no random selection is utilized and since the card hasmarkings thereon. In this system no coordinate information is sent sincethe column of information used to authenticate a sender is made knownapriori to the sender and receiver. In addition, if the receiver doesnot receive the sender's transmission, the synchronization between thesender and receiver would be lost which may cause subsequentauthentication attempts to fail.

Also, information security and user identification security are becomingincreasingly important as technology becomes more sophisticated. Forexample, multi-factor authentication schemes are used in an attempt tothwart hackers or to thwart other inappropriate uses of information anduser identities. For example, a two factor authentication scheme may useinformation known to a recipient or user such as a password or personalidentification number (PIN) as well as some type of physical token suchas a banking card, credit card, password token or other physical tokenwhich a user must be in physical possession of in order to initiate andcomplete an online transaction. Another level of authentication mayinclude biometric authentication that may include the scanning of afingerprint, eye or other biometric to again verify that the userattempting to gain access to a process, device, application or otherright is in fact the appropriate user.

Transaction cards are known that may include for example smart cards,magnetic strip-based cards, and other transaction cards that facilitatebanking transactions, credit card transactions, or any other suitabletransactions. As known in the art, a user personal identification number(PIN) is usually required in addition to the possession of a bankingcard to obtain cash from a cash-dispensing machine or to otherwise carryout an online transaction. One known multi-factor authenticationtechnique employs the use of a hardware token such as a battery operatedsmart card that displays a periodically changing and seemingly randomnumber on a portion of the smart card. When a user wishes to execute atransaction with the smart card, for example, the user enters theseemingly random number that changes often. The receiving transactionserver compares the received code entered by the user as displayed onthe smart card with a corresponding number generated by a code sourcegenerator. If the code entered by the user matches the number generatedby the code source generator, the transaction is approved and the useris granted a particular right such as accessing a bank account,purchasing goods, obtaining information, gaining access to a website orother software application, or any other suitable right as desired.However, such hardware tokens can be quite expensive and are batterypowered thereby requiring changing of the battery and the potential ofan electronic malfunction due to moisture problems or any other problemsrelated to electronic circuitry.

Other smart cards that do not employ such screens typically require acard reader that reads, for example, a magnetic strip. This can be arestriction where a user wishes to perform an online transaction but isnot sitting at a terminal that contains or has access to a magneticstrip reader.

In an apparently unrelated field, translucent cards are known such asplastic cards that contain a semi-transparent picture or pattern thatwhen visually evaluated does not appear to connote any particularinformation. However, when the translucent card is held over a displaywith a corresponding background filter pattern, the combination of thepattern on the card with the background pattern on the display screencombine to present a visually recognizable message or word such as theword “sorry” or “you're a winner”. These are static messages which arenot unique to any user and typically include only a single message. Suchplastic cards may be used for example to see if a holder has won aprize. The card for example may be mailed in the mail to members of apopulation. Those recipients then go to a web page identified on thetranslucent card or otherwise indicated in the mailing information tosee if they have won a prize. However, such plastic cards do not providemulti-factor authentication, are not user specific, do not includemultiple messages and typically include static messages.

In certain circumstances, it may be necessary to authenticate a userrecipient when the user wants to use the resources of the recipient unitwhen the recipient unit is off-line relative to a target source. Forexample, the recipient unit may be a laptop computer that can login to atarget source, such as a server, to use the resources of the server. Auser may log into the server from a laptop computer by any one of theknown authentication methods when the laptop is in online communicationwith the server. The authentication of the user, however, is typicallyprovided by an on-line interaction between the recipient unit and thetarget source. When the recipient unit is off-line, i.e., notcommunicating with the target source, the system administrator may wishto also provide authentication of the user for accessing the resourcesof the recipient unit. Other than first level authentication, theadministrator may wish to provide second level authentication of theuser when accessing the off-line recipient. For example, the above notedlaptop/server example, the user of the laptop may travel with the laptopand be unable to access the server through online authentication.However, the administrator may wish to limit the use of the laptop bythe user when the user is off-line, or provide second levelauthentication of the user when using the resources of the laptop whileoff-line. However, without the recipient being online with the targetsource, a user typically cannot be second level authenticated, becausethe second level authentication information and verification of the useris typically transmitted from the target source to the recipient duringon-line authentication.

An existing solution to the above-described problem is provided by RSASecurity's RSA's SecurID® for Microsoft® Windows®, which is a clientauthentication client/server application that allows the use of aSecurID® time-synchronous one-time-password token for authentication tothe Microsoft Windows client. SecurID® for Microsoft Windows is capableof completing the authentication process offline. SecurID® includes anRSA Authentication Manager that resides on the server, and an RSA Agentfor Microsoft Windows that resides on the client.

The first step in SecureID's process is that after a successful onlineauthentication, the Authentication Manager prepares the client systemfor offline authentication by pre-calculating a series of future timedependent authentication codes to be used by the client for a determinednumber of days. The Authentication Manager then hashes the codes andsends them for secure storage on the client system. When the userattempts to logon to their desktop offline, the Authentication Agent forMicrosoft Windows will recognize that the client isn't connected to theserver will prompt the user for their userID and passcode. TheAuthentication Agent then compares the information entered by the userwith the stored codes and will grant or deny access accordingly. Thenext time that the user logs onto the desktop with online connection tothe server, the Authentication Manager will update the codes stored onthe client for future offline access.

The SecurID® product, however, has several drawbacks. One drawback isthat the entire offline authentication provided by SecurID® istime-dependant. SecurID® requires the system clocks of the offlineclient and that of the authentication server to be synchronized or elsethe authentication attempts will fail because the submitted codes willbe verified against the system clock. Another drawback is that theoffline authentication mechanism isn't flexible enough to accommodate auser who can be offline for an indeterminate period of time. Should theoffline period be longer than the predetermined time period allowed foroffline authentication, then the system can no longer authenticate theuser. Once the time period expires, user trust and authentication is nolonger controlled by the authentication mechanism. Yet another drawbackis that pre-calculated time dependent authentication replies (i.e.,codes) are stored on the client that have no corresponding challenges.Therefore, the challenge never changes and applies to all of thepre-calculated replies.

Accordingly, a need exists for a method and apparatus that overcomes oneor more of the above problems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating one example of a system forsecurely providing identification information in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is flow chart illustrating one example of a method for securelyproviding identification information in accordance with one embodimentof the invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a further break down of the methodshown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating one example of a secure identificationinformation member in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram graphically illustrating one example of a loginscreen to facilitate authentication of a user or for securely providingidentification information in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 6 diagrammatically illustrates one example of a displayed visualfiltering pattern in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 graphically illustrates one example of a visually identifieddesignated identifier from one or more obscured identifiers that arelocated on a translucent identification member in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 is a diagram of a system for securely providing identificationinformation in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating in more detail one example of atranslucent identification member issuer in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate a flowchart showing one example of a methodfor securely providing identification information in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 12 illustrates one example of a transaction card including aportion containing a translucent identification member in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 13 illustrates another example of a transaction card that containsa translucent identification member in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating one example of a secure identificationinformation member in accordance with another embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 15 diagrammatically illustrates one example of displayed obscuredidentifier information in accordance with one embodiment to theinvention;

FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating another example of a system forsecurely providing identification information in accordance with oneembodiment to the invention;

FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating one example of a method forsecurely providing identification information in accordance with oneembodiment to the invention;

FIG. 18 is an illustration representing one example of an article, suchas a card, that may be used in a method for providing electronic messageauthentication according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 19 illustrates one example of a transaction card that includessender authentication information and location coordinate informationfor use in providing electronic message authentication in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 20 is a flow chart illustrating one example of a method forproviding electronic message authentication in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 21 is a graphic illustration showing one example of a message withappended sender authentication information and location coordinateinformation in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrating one example of a system forproviding electronic message authentication in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 23 is a flowchart illustrating one example of a method forproviding electronic message authentication in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating one example of a system forproviding mutual authentication between a user and a target resource inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 25 is a flowchart illustrating one example of a method forproviding mutual authentication between a user and a target resource inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 26 is a flowchart illustrating an example of another embodiment ofa method for providing mutual authentication between a user and a targetresource in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 27 is a flowchart illustrating another example of a method forproviding mutual authentication between a user and a target resource inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 28 is a block diagram illustrating one example of a device forproviding mutual authentication between a user and a target resource inthe form of a diagrammatical representation, in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 29 is a block diagram illustrating one example of on-line storingof challenge-reply sets for off-line authentication of a user;

FIG. 30 is a flow chart illustrating an example of on-lineauthentication of a user and storing of challenge-reply sets when arecipient unit is online with a sender unit;

FIG. 31 is a flow chart illustrating an example of off-lineauthentication of a user when the recipient unit is off-line with thesender unit;

FIG. 32 is a flow chart illustrating an example of off-lineauthentication attempts based on a number of stored challenge reply setsduring on-line authentication; and

FIG. 33 is a block diagram illustrating one example of on-line storingof challenge-reply sets for off-line authentication of a user.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Briefly, a method for providing authentication of a user of a recipientunit is disclosed when the recipient unit is off-line. The methodincludes storing at least one challenge-reply set associated with anarticle based on an on-line communication with a sender unit. Thechallenge-reply set includes at least a challenge-reply pair for use inoff-line authentication of the user for a particular resource availablethrough the recipient unit. When the user is offline, the methodincludes selecting the stored challenge-reply set for off-lineauthentication of the user for the particular resource available throughthe recipient unit. The method also includes storing a plurality ofchallenge-reply sets associated with an article with eachchallenge-reply set including at least a challenge-reply pair for use inoff-line authentication of the user. Accordingly, when the user isoffline, the method includes selecting at least one of the plurality ofchallenge-reply sets for off-line authentication of the user for theparticular resource available through the recipient unit.

In another embodiment, a method for providing mutual authenticationbetween a user and a sending unit, (i.e. target resource) in oneembodiment, includes determining, for a user that has been assigned anarticle, such as a card or other suitable article that has indiciathereon, desired sender authentication information that corresponds toactual sender authentication information that is embodied on thearticle. The sender authentication information can be located on thearticle by using the location information provided by the sending unitin a challenge. The method includes determining for the user,corresponding article identification information, such as a serialnumber that has been assigned to the article, or a shared secret, andsending a challenge for the user wherein the challenge includes at leastlocation information, to allow the user to identify desired senderauthentication information located on the article, and sending thearticle identification information. The user then receives the locationinformation and article identification information and uses the articleidentification information as authenticating information that indicatesthat the sender has sent the information is trustworthy since thearticle that is in the possession of the user also includes the articleidentification information thereon. The user then uses the locationinformation that has been sent to the user device, to determine forexample the corresponding desired sender authentication information thatis located on the article, such as by column and row information sent bythe target resource and sends a reply to the challenge back to thetarget resource (i.e. sending unit). The sender then authenticates theuser based on the reply to the challenge. The reply includes userauthentication information obtained from the article namely the desiredsender authentication information. If the received sender authenticationinformation sent by the user device (and obtained from the article),based on the location information, matches the desired senderauthentication information, the target resource grants suitable accessto the user (i.e. the user device). As such, article identificationinformation is sent along with location information by a sender after,for example, a first level of authentication has been determined to besuccessful. The first level of authentication may include, for example,the user sending a password and user ID to the target resource in aninitial stage of a logon procedure, as known in the art, whereafter thesending of the location information and article identifier informationis subsequently sent based on a successful first factor authenticationprocess.

In another example, a method for providing mutual authentication doesnot require the sending of the article identification information to theuser, but instead only requires the sending of the location informationto allow the user to identify the corresponding authenticationinformation on the article and send a reply back to the target resourcefor verification. However, in this embodiment, if the reply does notinclude the expected target resource authentication information asexpected by the sending unit, the method includes repeating the samechallenge for the user that includes the same location information thatwas previously sent. This process is repeated over, for example, eachsuccessive session, until the user sends the appropriate target sourceauthentication information that was derived from the article based onthe location information sent in the challenge.

In addition, suitable devices are also disclosed that carry out theabove methods. Also, a combination of the two methods is employed toeffect a type of enhanced mutual authentication process.

Also disclosed is a method for providing electronic messageauthentication that employs an article (also referred to as a member ortoken), such as a card, sticker, or any other suitable article, thatincludes sender authentication information and location information,such as row and column headings. In one example, each recipient ofinterest is issued an article that embodies sender authenticationinformation that is identifiable by corresponding location informationsuch as column and row identifiers. When the sender of an electronicmessage wants to send a message to a recipient of interest, the sendersends the electronic message and both location information andcorresponding desired sender authentication information located at thelocation identified by the location information. This includes datarepresenting the location and authentication information (such as anindex to, a reference to, the location information or authenticationinformation itself, or any suitable representation thereof). Therecipient may then, in one embodiment, look on their article (e.g. card)at the corresponding location and see if the sent desired senderauthentication information matches the sender authentication informationlocated on the article (also referred to as expected senderauthentication information). If a match occurs, then the recipienttrusts the sender of the message. The recipient need not send back anyinformation to the sender. As such, a simple card or other article maybe used to authenticate a sender of a message to thwart phishing, orother sender authentication problems. Other examples will be recognizedby those of ordinary skill in the art.

In addition, a system for providing electronic message authentication isalso disclosed that carries out the above methodology, and a transactioncard is also disclosed that includes the location information and senderauthentication information thereon in the form of a sticker or as partof the transaction card itself. In yet another embodiment, the articlemay be a translucent article to allow light to pass therethrough so thata visual filtering pattern and sender authentication information may besent by a sender along with the message. A user may hold up the articleto a display screen and overlay it on the visual filtering pattern sentby the sender. If the resulting sender authentication informationmatches the results sent in the message, the recipient may trust thesender of the message.

In another embodiment, an apparatus and method for securely providingidentification information generates one or more obscured user (e.g.,recipient) identifiers for a recipient, such as a plurality ofidentifiers that are generated based on user secret data such as apassword, personal identification number or other secret or non-secretinformation or identifiers that are not based on user secret data, suchas the identifier being randomly generated and then associated with theuser. In this case, no user-related information is used, but theidentifier can still identify the user. In another embodiment, a singleobscured identifier may be used.

In one embodiment, the method and apparatus generates a translucentidentification member (TIDM), such as a portion of, or an entire,plastic card, sheet, film, or other suitable member that has atranslucent area that includes the one or more obscured identifiers. Asused herein, translucent area can also include a transparent area. Forexample, the translucent identification member may be made fromtransparent or clear sheets, including smoked plastic or other suitablecoloring with the obscured identifiers (including non-characterinformation) printed in ink or otherwise placed thereon or therein. Theone or more obscured identifiers may be for example one-timeauthentication identifiers that are unique to a recipient of thetranslucent identification member. As such, the translucentidentification member or card contains what appears to visually be arandom pattern of information.

A corresponding visual filtering pattern is also generated for displayon a display device when the user desires to use the translucentidentification member. For example, the visual filtering pattern alsoappears to be random from a visual point of view but when visuallycombined with the one or more obscured identifiers on the translucentidentification member, a designated one of the one or more obscuredidentifiers is visually revealed. In one embodiment, a user may overlaythe translucent identification member over a designated portion of adisplay device or in the designated portion of a display that displaysthe visual filtering pattern. A combination of the visual filteringpattern with the pattern of different obscured identifiers on thetranslucent identification member combine to form a visually revealedsingle identifier or message from the one or more identifiers. Hence,for example in one embodiment, a seemingly random pattern is generatedon a screen which helps ensure only a single identifier is exposedvisually to a user that is viewing the translucent identification memberwhich is overlayed on the visual filtering pattern that is beingdisplayed on the display.

Accordingly, if desired, a security officer that has access, forexample, to a translucent identification member issuer may use a packageof blank cellophane cards that may be used to make the translucentidentification members on a local printer. The translucentidentification members may be printed having translucent color patternthat serves as the one or more obscured identifiers, or have othersuitable indicia that appears to be semi-random or obscured to a user.Use of color or color background may also be used to defeat photocopyingattacks. It will be recognized that portions of or all functions of thetranslucent identification member issuer may be provided through adistribution of providers and networks or through a web based service.For example, a recipient may access a TIDM issuance service through aweb connection and locally print the TIDM or receive the TIDM throughthe mail. Also, identifiers can be provided by one party and sent toanother party for printing or manufacturing. Other distribution ofoperations may also be employed as desired.

Once a visually revealed identifier is presented to a user, a userenters the visually revealed identifier through a user interface whereit is compared to an expected identifier. If the entered identifiermatches the expected identifier, proper authentication is indicated anda recipient may be granted access to a device, application, or processor other desired right (or submitted data is accepted—e.g. such as avote). In addition, a list of revoked translucent identification membersmay also be maintained to prevent compromise due to theft or loss oftranslucent identification members. The list may be stored in anysuitable location and updated by a service provider, translucentidentification member issuer or any suitable entity. Since thetranslucent identification members do not require electronics togenerate random numbers, the cost of such translucent identificationmembers may be quite low and their reliability may also be relativelyhigh since they are not susceptible to moisture or other damagetypically associated with smart cards.

In an alternative embodiment, a smart card or other transaction card ornon-transaction card (e.g., voting card or other suitable card) mayinclude a translucent identification member if desired. Hence atransaction card is disclosed and includes for example a portioncontaining card identification information (such as a transaction cardnumber, which may be impressed thereon such as through raised printingor electronically or through any other suitable storage mechanism suchas magnetic strip or any other suitable mechanism), as well as a portioncontaining a translucent identification member that has a translucentarea that includes one or more obscured identifiers. As such transactioncards such as credit cards, banking cards or any other transaction cardsmay include a window that contains the translucent identification memberor may have a transaction identification number or other identificationinformation affixed to a conventional transaction card to enhancesecurity.

In another embodiment, the role of the translucent identification memberand the recipient unit are reversed. For example, in this embodiment,the translucent identification member contains the visual filteringpattern and the display screen displays at least one obscured identifierthat may be for example data representing user authentication data thatis unique to a user, or other data if desired. The combination ofoverlaying the translucent identification member (visual filter) overthe display that displays an obscured identifier, reveals (un-obscures)the at least one obscured identifier on the screen. The visual filteringpattern on the member stays the same since it is printed on the member,and the displayed obscured identifier is changed during each session orat other suitable intervals.

Accordingly, one or more of the following advantages may result. Sincethe translucent identification members can be printed by an organizationsecurity officer, no manufacturing costs need to be incurred and theycan be generated locally for a recipient. Since there need not beelectronics, there is no battery to be replaced and no damage fromexposure to moisture need occur. No network or radio connectivity isrequired such as typically required by devices employing magneticstrips. The translucent identification member may be made of plastic orany other suitable material and in any suitable thickness. They aredurable and easy to replace in the event of a compromise since they maybe produced locally to an organization. Also investment in a substantialnetwork infrastructure to continually generate master codes that arematched with dynamically changing codes on a screen and a smart card canbe avoided.

In one embodiment, the displayed visual filtering pattern selectivelyilluminates a portion of a translucent identification member to visuallyreveal one of the one or more obscured identifiers. The visual filteringpattern can be changed with each authentication session. The one or moreobscured identifiers are printed indicia on a semitransparent (ortransparent) card and is preferably unique within a particular domain ofusers. The one or more obscured identifiers are visually obscuredthrough many suitable techniques such as color shading, ordering of thecharacters, a combination thereof or any other suitable visualobfuscation technique. FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a system 10 forsecurely providing identification information that includes atranslucent identification member issuer 12 operative to generate asecure identification member such as translucent identification member14, a visual filter generator 16, a translucent identification memberauthentication module 18, a recipient unit 20 and memory 22. In thisexample, the visual filter generator 16 and translucent identificationmember authentication module 18 are included as part of a translucentidentification member authenticator 24 that may be implemented as one ormore software modules executing on a computing unit such as a personalcomputer, work station, server, hand held device, or any other suitabledevice or multiple networked devices. The translucent identificationmember authenticator 24 is operatively coupled, in this example, to aweb server which in turn is operatively coupled to a network such as theInternet 26 to facilitate web based communication between a recipientunit 20 and a translucent identification member authenticator 24. Assuch multiple circuits are formed by the software and processingdevice(s). Also, as used herein, circuits also refers to any suitableelectronic logic in any suitable form including but not limited tohardware (microprocessors, discrete logic, state machines, digitalsignal processor etc.), software, firmware or any suitable combinationthereof.

The translucent identification member issuer 12, the visual filtergenerator 16, and the translucent identification member authenticationmodule 18 may be implemented in any suitable manner and is preferably,but not limited to, software modules executing on one or more computingdevices that contain one or more processing devices that executeinstructions that are stored in memory.

In this example, the translucent identification member issuer 12 will bedescribed as a local server that generates the translucentidentification member 14 using a printer or other suitable mechanism togenerate a translucent identification member 14. The translucentidentification member includes a translucent area that includes one ormore obscured identifiers thereon. However, it will be recognized thatthe translucent identification member issuer 12 may be included as partof the translucent identification member authenticator 24, or may belocated on any other suitable device including a web server and it willbe recognized that any of the software programs described herein may besuitably located on any suitable device or devices as well.

The memory 22 may be any suitable local or distributed memory and may belocated on a web server or locally if desired. The memory may be RAM,ROM or any suitable memory technology. The recipient unit 20 may be anysuitable device such as a laptop computer, desktop computer, hand helddevice or any other suitable device that includes a display 30 and userinterface, and may include one or more processing devices that executeinstructions stored in any suitable memory. The recipient deviceincludes the requisite circuitry to provide one or more user interfacessuch as graphic user interfaces through web browsers or otherapplications or operating systems and may include speech recognitioninterfaces or any suitable user input interfaces. As such the unitsinclude a display circuit operative to display a visual filteringpattern defined such that when the visual filtering pattern is visuallycombined with one or more obscured identifiers located on a translucentidentification member, a designated one of the one or more identifiersis visually revealed; and an input interface operative to receive datarepresenting the visually revealed identifier. In one example, a userinterface is used to request entry of a serial number associated withthe translucent identification member; and request entry of the revealedidentifier to determine whether to grant a desired right for therecipient.

Also if desired, a receiver unit can receive the filter or obscuredidentifiers for display on a display screen and send the response backthrough a completely different device (or through a completely differentchannel) such as a cell phone, by SMS message, email message or othersuitable channel and/or device.

Referring also to FIGS. 2 and 3, a method for securely providingidentification information will be described. As shown in block 200, arecipient sends a request into the translucent identification memberissuer 12 through the Internet or through any other suitable mechanismto request issuance of a translucent identification member 14. This maybe done for example by a recipient registering with an online financialinstitution with user-supplied data such as a password or other secretinformation. This is shown as recipient specific information 32 that isreceived by the translucent identification member issuer 12.

As shown in block 202, the method includes generating one or moreobscured identifiers for a recipient, which may be based on, forexample, the recipient specific information 32 and/or other information34. The other information 34 may be a translucent identification memberserial number or other suitable information if desired. This may be donefor example by the translucent identification member issuer 12, or anyother suitable entity. As shown in block 204, the method includesgenerating the translucent identification member 14 that has atranslucent area 36 that includes one or more obscured identifiers 38.The one or more obscured identifiers 38 are generated by the translucentidentification member issuer 12 in this example and stored in memory 22in a database form. The one or more obscured identifiers are stored inmemory 22 so that they may be subsequently accessed when it becomesnecessary to create appropriate visual patterns 40 to reveal the desiredrevealed identifier 700 or when checking the returned revealedidentifier 700.

For example, the translucent identification member issuer 12 may controla printer to print a cellophane card as a translucent identificationmember 14 that has printed thereon one or more obscured identifiers. Oneexample of a translucent identification member is shown in FIG. 4. Thetranslucent identification member 14 can be made of any suitablematerial such as plastic or any other suitable material that providessome level of transparency so that a combination of the one or moreobscured identifiers when overlayed on a display that emits light,allows the light energy (or lack of light energy) from the display tocombine with the one or more obscured identifiers to visually designateone of the one or more identifiers on a translucent identificationmember. The one or more identifiers on a translucent identificationmember may also be a plurality of different obscured identifiers.

The translucent identification member 14 may be a card, sheet, film orother member that may include if desired any suitable adhesive orconnecting structure to be applied over a window of a transaction card,or any other suitable material. The translucent identification membermay also be connected to a transaction card, such as, for example, byusing a suitable connecting structure to join the translucentidentification member to an end or side of a transaction card. The oneor more obscured identifiers 38 that are printed on the translucentidentification member 38, as noted above, may be characters (e.g.,ASCII), symbols, print patterns, colored versions thereof or any othersuitable indicia. The one or more obscured identifiers 38 appear to bevisually obscured and hence seemingly random when viewed by a recipient.In other embodiments it may be desirable to print patterns of ink thatdo not connote characters but instead visually conceal a message orother information so that when overlayed on top of a display the patterngenerated by the display in combination with the printed image, allowsthe viewer to visually decipher a revealed identifier.

The translucent area 36 includes an information pattern that representsone or more identifiers that may be unique identification informationthat may be used for one or more authentication sessions or otherpurposes. The information pattern represented by one or more obscuredidentifiers is preferably unique to a given domain of users to reducethe likelihood of the same user obtaining a same translucentidentification member with the same obscured identifiers. Thetranslucent area 36 is configured (e.g. sized) to overlay at least aportion of the display screen 30 on the recipient unit 20. In oneembodiment, each of the one or more obscured identifiers may serve asone-time authentication identifiers for the recipient of the translucentidentification member. It is noted, as used herein, identificationinformation includes any information used to directly or indirectlyauthenticate a user (e.g., TIDM recipient) or other process of interest,or to get access to a desired right associated with a process or device,or any other suitable information that is intended to be kept secretexcept at the time a transaction is to be effected.

To make the TIDM, the method may include receiving a request from a userfor one or more obscured user identifiers and recording a link betweenthe user and the identification information associated with the one ormore obscured user identifiers. The method may include providing the oneor more obscured user identifiers to the user wherein the one or moreobscured user identifiers are on a translucent identification memberthat is sent to the user, the one or more obscured user identifiers aresent to a third party to be placed on a translucent identificationmember for the user, the one or more obscured user identifiers are sentto the user for placement on a translucent identification member, andthe one or more obscured user identifiers are selected from apre-existing pool of obscured user identifiers. The request from theuser may include user specific information and the user specificinformation may be used to create the one or more obscured identifiersor may be combined with other information to produce the one or moreobscured user identifiers.

As shown in block 206, once the translucent identification member 14 hasbeen generated and provided to a recipient, the visual filteringgenerator 16, or other suitable mechanism generates a visual filteringpattern for display on the display 30 of the recipient device. When thevisual filtering pattern 40 is displayed by the recipient device, thevisual filtering pattern visually combines with the one or more obscuredidentifiers located on the translucent identification member 14, todesignate one of the one or more identifiers. In other words, the visualfiltering pattern filters out undesired identifiers to reveal a selectedone of the one or more identifiers.

As shown in block 208, the method may include overlaying, such as by arecipient, or a device, the translucent identification member 14 on thedisplayed filtering pattern 40 to visually identify a designated one ofthe obscured identifiers on the translucent identification member 14.The visually identified identifier is then entered by the recipient tofacilitate a transaction or gain access to a specific desired rightassociated with any process or device of interest.

As shown again in FIG. 3, the steps of FIG. 2 are presented in moredetail. As shown in block 300, generating one or more obscuredidentifiers for a recipient may be done for example by the translucentidentification member issuer 12 or any other suitable entity byobtaining recipient specific information, such as secret or non-secretdata or non-user related information. This process may also beaccomplished by using non user-related and non user-supplied material,in which case, the generated one or more obscured identifiers aresubsequently associated with a user. When recipient specific informationis used, this may be a personal identification number, password, username, account number or other data provided by the recipient through therecipient unit 20 or from any other suitable source. This is indicatedas recipient specific information 32. As shown in block 302 therecipient specific information 32 is suitably combined, such as througha suitable mathematical function or algorithm, to produce the one ormore obscured identifiers 38. The other information 34 may be, forexample, output generated from a random number generator, the actualtranslucent identification member serial number 44 (or other TIDMidentification information) that may be printed on the translucentidentification member 14 or stored by the translucent identificationmember issuer 12, or any other suitable information. As shown in block204, a translucent identification member serial number, or any othersuitable information for identifying the translucent identificationmember, is assigned to the obscured one or more identifiers 38. It willbe recognized that upon an initial request or generation of atranslucent identification member that the translucent identificationmember issuer 12 may select a translucent identification member serialnumber and associate therewith the recipient specific information 32.This information may be combined to generate the one or more obscuredidentifiers 38. The translucent identification member serial number 44may be stored in memory 22 for later use by the translucentidentification member authenticator 24 (authenticating a recipient usingthe translucent identification member 14). The order of the steps asdescribed herein with respect to any method may be suitably reorderedbased on a desired result.

As shown in block 306, generating the translucent identification member14 may include printing the obscured different identifiers in a desiredformat on a plastic film, sheet or card to produce the translucentidentification member 14. As shown in block 308, displaying thefiltering pattern 40 on a display may include randomly selecting, fromthe obscured identifiers, a selected identifier to produce a visualfiltering pattern 40 on display 30 that reveals the selected one of theobscured identifiers as the identifier to be revealed when thetranslucent identification member 14 is overlayed on the visualfiltering pattern 40.

As shown in FIGS. 4 through 7, and to further illustrate an example, asshown in FIG. 4, the translucent identification member 14 has printedthereon the translucent identification member serial number 44 or otheridentification information and the one or more obscured identifiers 38printed in the translucent area 36. As noted above this may be printedon cellophane material or other material readily accommodated byconventional printers, if desired, to reduce fabrication costs. Howeverany suitable material or manufacturing process may be used. Once therecipient is in possession of the translucent identification member 14,multi-factor authentication is provided using the translucentidentification member 14.

The filter may be generated in any suitable way. For example, a selectedobscured identifier may be chosen from the stored one or more obscuredidentifiers whose position on the TIDM is defined. The visual filterpattern generator 16 produces a filtering pattern based on a predefinedlayout of the TIDM to insure that the filter blocks the proper characterlocations. Any other suitable technique may also be used.

As shown in FIG. 5, the recipient device 20 may display, through a webbrowser or other suitable user interface, an input screen, based on areceived HTML page if a web browser is being used, containing fieldsthat receive user input such as a user identifier field 500, a passwordfield 502 and the translucent identification member serial number field44. The user submits the entered information through suitable interfacebuttons 504. This information is then sent to the web server via theInternet and if desired forwarded to the translucent identificationmember authenticator 24. As shown in this example the informationentered in user ID field 500 or the password field 502 may be consideredrecipient specific information 32 that was previously entered when thetranslucent identification member issuer 12 initially generated thetranslucent identification member 14.

FIG. 6 illustrates one example of a graphic user interface (generatedbased on a received HTML page) displayed on display 30 to facilitatesecurely providing identification information using the translucentidentification member 14. The graphic user interface may be generatedfor example through a web browser and suitable host processor on therecipient unit or any other suitable processor, and indicates an overlayarea 600 that may be the same size or a different size than a visualfiltering pattern 40 that is presented on the display 30. Hence inresponse to the login screen shown in FIG. 5, the translucentidentification member authenticator 24 submits a response containing thevisual filtering pattern 40 and the response interface screen shown inFIG. 6. The recipient unit 20 displays the visual filtering pattern 40and a revealed identifier field 602 to allow entry of the one revealedID from the one or more obscured identifiers.

FIG. 7 graphically illustrates the condition where the translucentidentification member 14 is overlayed on top of the visual filteringpattern 40 to reveal one of the one or more obscured identifiers. Theuser positions the translucent identification member 14 and hence theone or more printed obscured identifiers 38 over the visual filteringpattern 40 and the combination of the visual filtering pattern 40 andthe printed different obscured identifiers 38 reveals in this example arevealed identifier 700 which is then entered by the recipient in therevealed identifier field 602. The user then submits the revealedidentifier 700 to the translucent identification member authenticator 24to authenticate the user for the particular transaction or for access toa particular right. Accordingly, the translucent identification memberauthenticator 24 receives data representing the revealed identifier 700in response to a user or other entity overlaying the translucentidentification member 14 on the display 30. The translucentidentification member authentication module 18 compares the receivedrevealed identifier 700 with a corresponding expected identifier 702(see FIG. 1) to determine whether proper authentication of the recipientis appropriate. The translucent identification member authenticationmodule 18 obtains the corresponding expected identifier 702 from thememory 22 or may generate the expected identifier on the fly knowing thevisual filter pattern and accessing the obscured identifiers 38, or mayobtain the expected identifier 702 in any other suitable manner.

Referring to FIGS. 8 and 9 the issuance of a translucent identificationmember 14 will be described in more detail by way of an exemplaryembodiment. In order to obtain a translucent identification member 14, arecipient registers with an online bank or other institution usingrecipient specific information 32 such as an account number or otherinformation as indicated by registration request 800. This request isthen passed through to a web server 802. The web server 802 thencommunicates with a bank server 804 which includes for example acustomer management system and translucent identification memberrequester 806 which may be a suitable software application executing ona processing device if desired or any other suitable structure. The bankserver 804 then generates a translucent identification member issuancerequest 808 to the translucent identification member issuer 12 which maybe included in or separate from a suitable server 810. The translucentidentification member issuance request 808 includes the recipientspecific information 32 entered by the user. In response, thetranslucent identification member issuer 12 provides the obscuredidentifiers 38 in a response message 810 and generates and records atranslucent identification member serial number 44 in the memory 22along with the associated obscured identifiers 38 that will appear onthe translucent ID member 14 for the requesting recipient. In thisexample, the bank server 804 links the recipient's account with thetranslucent identification member serial number 44 and then stores thelinked information in a database 810 for later use. The bank server 804then generates the translucent identification member 14 by, for example,formatting the obscured identifiers 38 for printing and sending theinformation to a printer 814 or other device which then prints out ormanufactures the translucent identification member 14. Hence thetranslucent identification member serial number 44 is assigned by thetranslucent identification member issuer 12 and is associated (e.g.,linked) with the one or more obscured identifiers 38 and with the userin memory 22 in a database.

The translucent identification member issuer 12 may include aninformation randomizer 900 and a translucent identification memberformatter 902. The information randomizer 900 may use the translucentidentification member serial number 44 as other information 34 to becombined with the recipient specific information 32 to generate the oneor more obscured identifiers 38. This may be done using a hash algorithmor other suitable encoding technique as desired to generate the one ormore obscured identifiers 38. The translucent identification memberformatter 902 may be another software application executing on asuitable processing device or devices that formats the information foroutput to a printer or other manufacturing device.

FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate another embodiment of the operation of thesystem after the issuance of the translucent identification member hasoccurred. As shown in block 1000, the method includes requesting andobtaining recipient specific information 32 such as previously describedwith reference to FIG. 5. Once the translucent identification member 14has been printed or manufactured, it is then provided to the recipientby hand or through mail or any other suitable technique as shown inblock 1002. As shown in block 1004, a bank server of a bank determinesif a recipient has requested authentication, such as to a logon request.If a request has been received, a web page may be sent requesting entryof the recipient information 32 including the password and thetranslucent identification member serial number 44 as a first level of amulti-factor authentication process as shown in block 1006. This may bedone for example through the screen shown in FIG. 5. As shown in block206, the bank server determines whether the entered recipient specificinformation 32 and password and translucent identification member serialnumber 44 are correct for example by passing along the information tothe translucent identification member authenticator 24. If the firstauthentication level passes, the method includes, as shown in block1010, displaying the visual filtering pattern 44 that when visuallycombined with the one or more obscured identifiers 38 on the translucentidentification member 14, reveals only one of the one or more obscuredidentifiers as the appropriate identifier to be entered for the currentsession or transaction. The bank server may then, through the webserver, request entry of the revealed identifier 700 as selectivelyrevealed through the filtering pattern displayed on the display byproviding the screen as shown in FIG. 6. This is shown in block 1010. Inresponse to the request, the translucent identification memberauthenticator 24 receives the revealed one time use identifier 700 andcompares the received identifier to a corresponding expected IDdetermined for example by the visual filter generator or authenticator24. This is shown in block 1012. Given the “filter”, the user's dataentry and stored information about that user, the authenticator canvalidate whether the user entered correct data or not (either on its ownor by passing it to a “server”). If the desired identifier is generatedbefore requesting it from the user, the system also generates the rightfilter to reveal the pre-determined identifier (all before presenting tothe user). Alternatively, if the user is provided with a pattern (thefilter) and then the system validates the identifier that the userentered with the identifier that would have resulted from that pattern,a desired identifier need not be picked ahead of time and the “filtergenerator”, therefore does not require knowledge of anything else. Thedata representing the visually revealed identifier (e.g., the dataitself, an encrypted form thereof or other suitable data, may also bereceived using a device other than the device on which the visualfiltering pattern is displayed. For example, the identifier may berevealed on a screen of one device and a handheld device or non-handhelddevice may be used to enter and send the visually revealed identifier toanother device or system that checks whether there is a match.

As shown in block 1014 if a match does not exist, the recipient will besent an error and requested to re-enter the revealed identifier. Thesystem may change to using a different identifier for the re-try. Also,the system may lockout the user after a certain number of failedattempts. However, as shown in block 1016, if a match occurs, secondfactor authentication is determined to be successful and the user isgranted the desired right.

FIG. 12 and FIG. 13 illustrate examples of transaction cards that employtranslucent identification members 14 (including the type shown in FIG.14). The transaction cards may be smart cards or non-smart cards andhave the conventional information associated with credit cards, debitcards, or any other suitable transaction cards and in addition includethe translucent identification member 14. The translucent identificationmember 14 appears on a portion of the transaction card. One portion ofthe transaction card includes account information such as an accountnumber, credit card number, or any other suitable identifier 1300 and ifdesired, other user identifiers such as a user name 1402. In an exampleshown in FIG. 12, the transaction card includes an opening 1306 that maybe, for example, cut in the plastic transaction card or otherwiseprovided in the plastic card and a translucent identification member 14with adhesive may be placed over the opening or may be integrally moldedtherein or otherwise attached such as but not limited to a connectingstructure configured to receive and hold the TIDM in or to thetransaction card so that the size of the transaction card is the samesize as conventional transaction cards or any other suitable size asdesired. If used, the connecting structure may be a snap fit structure,slide in structure, adhesive based connection or any suitable connectingstructure as desired.

FIG. 13 illustrates a different example in which the translucentidentification member 14 is attached to a side surface or any othersurface of a conventional transaction card. The translucentidentification member 14 may be foldable along a fold line 1400 or maybe of a thickness wherein it is non-foldable and formed as part of thetransaction card if desired. Any other suitable mechanisms for suitablyattaching the translucent identification member with or to a transactioncard is also contemplated.

FIGS. 14 and 15 illustrate an alternative embodiment that basicallyreverses the role of the translucent identification member and therecipient unit. In this embodiment, the translucent identifier 14contains the visual filtering or enhancement pattern 40 and the displayscreen displays at least one obscured identifier that may be for exampledata representing user authentication data that is unique to a user ornon-unique to a user as desired (see FIG. 15). As with the previousembodiment, the combination of overlaying the translucent identificationmember (visual filter) over the display that displays an obscuredidentifier, reveals (un-obscures) or enhances the at least one obscuredidentifier on the screen. The revealed user authentication data may thenbe entered into a suitable transaction device as the password or otheruser authentication information. Also, when the translucent area isattached or incorporated in a conventional transaction card, thetransaction card includes as shown for example on FIGS. 12 and 13, afirst portion containing a transaction card number and a second portioncontaining a translucent identification number or other identifyinginformation having a translucent area that includes a visual filteringpattern.

FIG. 16 illustrates one example of a system 1600 employing the TIDM 14of FIG. 14. In this example, the TIDM authenticator 24 includes anobscured identifier generator 1602 similar to the type used to generatethe one or more identifiers described with reference to FIG. 1. Theobscured identifier generator 1602 generates the obscured identifier(s)after receiving recipient specific information from a user, such as auser name, TIDM serial number, or other suitable information, to insurethat the proper obscured identifier is displayed for that user. As partof the registration process, the user may have already provided the sameuser specific information and the obscured identifier generator 1602 mayhave already generated the obscured identifier and stored them in memory22.

The translucent identification member issuer 12, in this examplegenerates a TIDM 14 having a translucent area having a visual filteringpattern 40 thereon configured to visually filter a displayed obscureduser identifier(s) 38 and is configured to overlay at least a portion ofa display screen. Having a user enter in user specific information toinitiate a session may be desirable where the same filtering pattern isprinted on translucent identifier members for a plurality of users. Itis desirable to know that the holder of the TIDM is a proper user asopposed to a thief that stole the TIDM. The authenticator, or othersource, sends the generated obscured identifier to the recipient device.The recipient device displays the at least one visually obscuredidentifier as user authentication data and receives data representingthe revealed user authentication data (such as the revealed ID itself ora representation of it) based on the translucent identification memberhaving a filtering pattern thereon. For example when the translucentidentification member having the filtering pattern thereon is held overthe display, the filter reveals the user identifier. If desired, atranslucent identifier serial number can be assigned to each TIDM eventhough the same filter pattern may be printed on more than one TIDM. Assuch, several users may have translucent identification members with thesame filter pattern.

The translucent identification member issuer 12 is operative to generatea translucent identification member 14 having a translucent area thatincludes a visual filtering pattern 40 thereon configured to visuallyfilter a displayed obscured user identifier and configured to overlay atleast a portion of a display screen. The obscured identifier generator1602 generates at least one visually obscured identifier for display ona display, in response to received user information such as userspecific information. The translucent identification memberauthenticator 18, in this example receives data representing therevealed identifier such as through the user entering the informationthrough a user interface after the filtering pattern is overlayed on thedisplay and as previously described, the translucent identificationmember authenticator compares the received revealed identifier with acorresponding expected identifier (since it was generated by theobscured identifier generator) to determine whether properauthentication of a recipient is appropriate. Alternatively, thetranslucent identification member authenticator may send the receivedrevealed identifier to a third party that carries out the comparison andsends a message back to the authenticator or recipient unit. Any othersuitable division of operations may also be used as desired. Thetranslucent identification member authenticator or third party thensends right-grant information to a recipient unit in response to thereceived data matching the corresponding expected identifier.

FIG. 17 illustrates one example of a method for securely providingidentification information that includes generating at least oneobscured identifier for a recipient based on, for example, receivedrecipient secret data or non-secret data or data that is not related toor received from the recipient. This is shown in block 1700. As shown inblock 1702, the method includes generating a translucent identificationmember 14 having a visual filtering pattern 40 thereon. After the TIDMhas been made, the method includes receiving user identificationinformation, such as a PIN: or other data as a first factor ofauthentication for the user. As shown in block 1704, the method includessending the one or more obscured identifiers to the recipient anddisplaying at least one visually obscured identifier as second factoruser authentication data, that when visually combined with the visualfiltering pattern 40 on the translucent identification member, revealsan obscured identifier for a user. As shown in block 1706, the methodincludes, the user for example, overlaying the translucentidentification member on the display to visually identify the obscuredidentifier through the filter. The method also includes receiving datarepresenting the revealed user authentication data based on thetranslucent identification member having a filtering pattern thereon.The method also includes receiving user specific information, such asprior to the step of displaying the obscured identifier, to determinethe visually obscured identifier to be displayed on the display. Forexample, the system needs to determine which obscured identifier todisplay since each user preferably has a different identifier. This maybe determined for example by having the user enter user specificinformation, through a user interface in the recipient unit, such as apassword or other secret or non-secret information as desired.

Stated another way, the method includes receiving user identificationinformation as a first factor of authentication for a user and using,such as by the TIDM authenticator, service provider or other suitableentity, such user identification information to identify a translucentidentification member in memory containing a particular visual filteringpattern known to have been associated with such user. The methodincludes generating an expected identifier to be used as a second factorof authentication for the user associated with the received useridentification information and generating a pattern of obscured useridentifiers containing the expected identifier such that when thepattern of obscured user identifiers is combined with the visualfiltering pattern on the identified translucent identification memberassociated with the user the expected identifier will be revealed. Themethod includes transmitting the pattern of obscured user identifiers toa display (e.g., a displayed GUI) and requesting entry of a revealedidentifier; and receiving data representing the revealed identifier. Asnoted above, the TIDM authenticator for example, or any suitable numberof servers, or devices act as the circuits to carry out the aboveoperations.

The primary functionality of the disclosed apparatus, methods andsystems may be provided through application programming interfaces(APIs) that are executed by one or more processing devices that can bereadily integrated into current infrastructures. In addition, eachtranslucent identification member in one embodiment is different and hasseemingly different random information since the seemingly randominformation is typically, but not necessarily, generated frominformation unique to a recipient, such as a password, user name,personal identification number, or any other information. In eachembodiment, translucent identification members, and/or visual filtersand/or obscured identifiers can be pre-manufactured and subsequentlyassociated with a user. Additionally, the obscured identifiers and/orfiltering patterns can be pre-generated and subsequently applied totranslucent identification members. Such subsequent application totranslucent identification members may be done by the creator of thefiltering patterns or obscured identifiers or may be done by the entityproviding the service or by a third-party contractor of the serviceprovider. Since the manufacture of translucent identification memberscan be done with very simple materials such as transparent plastic, itis also possible for the service provider to send the obscuredidentifiers or visual patterns to users who can then themselves, applythe filtering pattern or obscured identifiers to a translucentidentification member.

The same translucent identification member may be used a repeated numberof times since there may be a plurality of different obscuredidentifiers thereon wherein each time authentication is requested adifferent one of the obscured identifiers is exposed through the visualfiltering pattern. Hence the visually revealed identifier on thetranslucent identification member can change during each authenticationsession if desired. The translucent identification members describedherein may be used for user authentication, activating softwareapplications or for any other suitable purpose. The different obscuredidentifiers may be characters, images, or any other suitableinformation.

FIG. 18 illustrates one example of an article 1800 (e.g. a member), suchas a translucent or non-translucent film, sticker, card, or any othersuitable material or article. It will be recognized that the informationshown on the article 1800 is shown as one example only and it will berecognized that any suitable information may be used. In this example,the article 1800 includes location information 1802 and 1804 (shown asrow and column indicia) respectively and sender authenticationinformation 1806 in the form of numbers that are addressable orlocatable by the coordinate location information (e.g. row and columninformation). In addition, the article 1800 includes an optional articleidentifier 1808 such as a serial number generated (e.g. assigned) by theissuer of the article 1800.

Generally speaking, the article 1800 if desired, may be generated asdescribed above with respect to the translucent identification member togenerate for example the sender authentication information. However, inaddition the location information 1802 and 1804 also needs to be addedin one embodiment. In addition, it will be recognized that thetranslucent identification member 14 may also be used as a senderauthentication article and that the obscured identifiers 38 may alsoserve as sender authentication information.

In addition, in this embodiment there need not be recipient specificinformation if the system does not require it, as the senderauthentication information may be generated either independent from orbased on recipient specific information if desired. This may occur whenthe recipient signs up for the service. In addition, as used herein,location information includes the information, for example, sent with amessage or indexed by a message sent by the sender which indicates whichsender authentication information on the article 1800 that the recipientis to verify. For example, location information need not be row andcolumn information, but may merely be the terms such as “upper leftcorner”, “lower left corner”, “third from the right”, or any othersuitable information to notify the recipient which sender authenticationinformation on the article is to be used as the authenticationinformation for the given session, transaction or other communication.Alternatively, the sender authentication information can be a pointer toa location that contains the sender authentication information, such as,for example, a universal resource locator (URL) that points to thesender authentication information for the given session, transaction orother communication. Additionally, the location information can be apointer to a location that contains the actual location information,which in turn indicates where to look on the article for the senderauthentication information for the given session, transaction or othercommunication. In another embodiment, the location information is avisual filtering pattern.

FIG. 19 illustrates a transaction card 1900 that may include, forexample, a magnetic strip 1902 or any other suitable information thatmay provide account information or message sender information. Thetransaction card 1900 may be for example a banking card, credit card,debit card or any other suitable transaction card as described above andmay include transaction card identifier information such as a cardnumber etc., as described above. This transaction card 1900 is differentfrom conventional transaction cards because, among other things, itincludes the article 1800 thereon (or member), therein or securedthereto in any suitable manner. As such, variations of the transactioncard 1900 are illustrated for example in FIG. 13. In one example, themember 1800, such as a piece of adhesive backed paper or any othersuitable member, is secured to a conventional transaction card ifdesired. It will also be recognized as described above that the memberor article may be secured or suitably affixed in any suitable mannerincluding, but not limited to adhesive, or any other suitable mechanism.The member 1800 may also be sent to a recipient as a tear away portionof a financial statement, billing statement etc. Preferably it is sizedto fit on a transaction card.

FIG. 20 illustrates one example of a method for providing electronicmessage authentication that may be carried out by any suitable element.In this example, it may be carried out for example by a server orplurality of servers or other suitable applications executing on one ormore processing devices. As shown in block 2000, the method includes,for example, when a sender such as a bank server or other message senderwishes to send a message to a recipient, determines desired locationinformation, such as a row and column that also exists on the particularrecipient's article, and corresponding desired sender authenticationinformation to be sent and matched with sender authenticationinformation located on the article and is locatable according to thesent location information. This may be done for example by accessing adatabase that links a recipient's email address for example, tocorresponding database fields that represent for example the content ofan article that was issued for that recipient. As shown in block 2002,the method includes sending the electronic message and both desiredlocation information and corresponding desired sender authenticationinformation, to the recipient wherein the desired sender authenticationinformation is locatable on the article based on the sent desiredlocation information. As such, for example, the sender or sending unitmay associate (e.g., append, pre-pend, insert or otherwise attach) rowand column information and corresponding sender authenticationinformation that should appear at those locations on the article as partof an electronic message to a recipient. The recipient may then locate,based on the received column and row number, the sender authenticationinformation on their article that was issued to them by (or on behalfof) the sender, and confirm that the sent desired sender authenticationinformation matches the same information at the locations indicated bythe sent location information sent by the sending unit. If a matchoccurs, then the recipient trusts the sender of the message. It will berecognized that the sent location information and sender authenticationinformation may be the data itself, an index to, function of, referenceto, or any other suitable representation of either of both the locationinformation and the sender authentication information.

For example, the location coordinate information and correspondingsender authentication information could include electronicallytransmitted data for display on a display device, such as a visualfiltering pattern and sender authentication information. In thisembodiment, the article would be a transparent article to allow a userto place the article over an area of a display screen. The sent messagewould include the visual filtering pattern along with the desired senderauthentication information that should appear visually to the user whenthe user overlays the article on a display screen. If the recipientvisually recognizes or sees the sender authentication information thatis revealed through the visual filtering pattern on screen with the sentdesired sender authentication information and it matches, then the usercan trust the sender of the message. As such, visual filteringtechniques as previously described with respect to the translucentidentification member for recipient authentication may be used in partto authenticate a sender.

Referring also to FIG. 21, a specific example of a message andassociated sender authentication information and location information isshown as 2100. In a particular embodiment, also referring to FIG. 18,the message is appended with sender authentication information and inparticular numbers “98413” and coordinate information of “A2, E4, F1,H4, J2”. As such, the sending unit sends the electronic message alongwith both desired sender authentication information and desired locationinformation as shown. The user then uses the article 1800 and looks, forexample, at coordinate location A2 and sees the number 9, looks at thelocation coordinate E4 and sees the number 8, looks at the coordinatelocation F1 and sees the number 4, looks at the coordinate location H4and sees the number 1, and looks at the coordinate location J2 and seesthe number 3. If the user sees the same sender authenticationinformation on the article 1800 as was sent by the sending unit, thenthe recipient trusts the sender as being an authentic message sender. Inthis example, the sender authentication information visually representssender authentication information that is identifiable by locationcoordinate information in the form of rows and columns. However, it willbe recognized that rows and column format need not be used and as suchthe cells as shown need not be employed. For example, if objects areused as opposed to letters and numbers, the objects may be located inupper left, upper right, middle or any other suitable location of thearticle and the sender authentication information, which could be theobject can be sent such as in the form of a graphic or other suitableobject, and the coordinate location information may actually be wordsthat might read “upper left corner”. Any other suitable coordinatelocation information or sender authentication information may also beused.

The article 1800 as noted above may be for example a piece of paper, aplastic card, transparent plastic card, sticker that can be affixed toexisting plastic cards or any other suitable article. In this example,each email recipient is provided with the article with its own randomly(or seemingly randomly) generated contents. When sending an email, anoriginator's message transfer agent or other server component associateswith each outbound email either directly or indirectly such as by a linkto an HTML page using a URL or other suitable reference, coordinates orother directions for locating one or more of the card's cells orlocations. Also appended, pre-pended, inserted, or otherwise attached tothe email are the contents at those locations. Upon receipt, the userconfirms the lookup results using their individual sender authenticationarticle, such as reading the coordinates listed in the email and lookingthem up on their own sender authentication article. In the embodimentwhere a translucent version of the authentication article is used, theauthentication article may be placed over a visual filtering patternprovided with the email and the revealed sender authenticationinformation is compared by the recipient to the desired senderauthentication information that is provided in the email. If thecharacters or other information do not match, then the authenticationhas failed.

FIG. 23 illustrates in more detail a method for providing electronicmessage authentication wherein the method includes, as shown in block2300, generating for example, random sender authentication informationto be placed on the article and if desired, location information thatmay also be placed on the article and linking the two with the selectedrecipient. Random includes pseudo random information or any suitablelevel of randomization of information. This may be done as describedabove with respect to the translucent identification member through asuitable interface on one or more server computers or any other suitabledevice. As shown in block 2302, this information is stored as theauthentication information and corresponding location information in asuitable database. As shown in block 2304, the method includes creatingan article, such as article 1800 containing the location coordinateinformation and corresponding sender authentication information and ifdesired an article identifier 1808 such as serial number for issuance toa specific recipient. This may be done, for example, in basically asimilar manner as described above. For example, a card may be printed, atransaction card may be suitably formed, or a sticker may be generatedthat can be adhered to any suitable article. The article is then sent tothe recipient by mail or any other suitable channel.

In an alternative embodiment, instead of using a type of hard token(e.g. article), a soft token may be used wherein the representation (maynot be an actual image) of a card for example or representation of anarticle may be sent electronically for display via a display screen to auser or for other electronic access by such user, either during eachsession or once and the user may store the electronic senderauthentication article in a file and may access it as necessary. As suchthe electronic representation of the article can be accessed by asoftware application so as to provide the recipient with the senderauthentication information located at the location identified by thesent location information.

As shown in block 2306, the method also includes, for example asdescribed above with respect to FIG. 20, determining, such as by thesender, at least one desired item of location information andcorresponding sender authentication information to append, pre-pend,insert, or otherwise attach to the current message. Selection of thelocation information and authentication information may be done in anysuitable manner, such as randomly or in any other suitable fashion asdesired. As shown in dashed block 2308, in an alternative embodiment,location information and sender authentication information iseffectively communicated in the form of a visual filtering pattern thatmay, if desired, cover up all row and column headings and instead justallow the sender authentication information to be visually displayedwhen the article is overlaid. As such, the method may include sending avisual filtering pattern for display to the recipient to allow therecipient to visually determine whether the sender is authentic. Therecipient may place at least a portion of the sender authenticationinformation that is on the article, over a visual filtering pattern thatis displayed on the display screen, to determine whether the sent senderauthentication information with the message matches the senderauthentication information made visible by the visual filtering pattern.

In one example the method includes appending at least one desired itemof location information and corresponding sender authenticationinformation to an electronic message for a recipient. The senderauthentication information visually represents authenticationinformation identifiable by the location coordinate information. Assuch, the message itself may be appended, pre-pended, inserted, orotherwise attached to the information or may contain a reference to theinformation such as a website or any other suitable link or any othersuitable representation of the sender authentication information andlocation coordinate information.

As shown in block 2310, the method includes sending the electronicmessage and data representing both the location coordinate informationand the corresponding sender authentication information to a recipient.The recipient may then look at the information on the article and see ifit matches that which was sent by the sending unit.

It will also be recognized that determining at least one locationcoordinate, based on the location information and corresponding senderauthentication information may be done, for example, dynamically asopposed to looking up the information stored in the database. Forexample, the sender (e.g. message sending unit) may simply be programmedwith a function to generate sender authentication information to send asopposed to looking up pre-stored information.

Also if desired, the sender authentication information may beinformation for example, such as the ending balance on a bank statement,any suitable information in a billing statement or account statementthat the sender may have previously sent to the recipient that maycontain the sender authentication information. The location informationmay be the date of a particular statement and the sender authenticationinformation may be the current balance on a credit card account. Anyother statement may also be used or any other information known to, orprovided by, the sending unit that is in the possession of the recipientmay be used.

FIG. 22 illustrates one example of a system for providing electronicmessage authentication that may, if desired, carry out the stepsdescribed with reference to FIG. 23. For example, a sending unit 2200,such as any server computer, plurality of servers, mobile devices or anyother suitable structure may include a sender authentication articleissuer 2202, or a third party may issue the sender authenticationarticle as desired. For example, the sender authentication articleissuer 2202 may generate the random sender authentication informationand corresponding location coordinate information and link it with arecipient and store the information in the database 2204. The article1800 may then be mailed, for example, to a recipient, or in the case ofa soft token, sent electronically to the recipient. In this illustration(FIG. 22), a translucent article is shown. As such, the recipient 20includes a display 30 and the message 2100 for example is displayed onthe display along with a visual filtering pattern and the sent senderauthentication information. The visual filtering pattern is then used toreveal the expected sender authentication information that is thenmatched by the recipient to that sent in the message 2100. In thisembodiment where the sender authentication article is a translucenttype, the visual filtering pattern sent by the sender unit embodieslocation information since the result of the recipient overlaying thesender authentication article on a display screen will result in avisually revealed sender authentication information at particularlocations in the article. As such, the visual filtering pattern includesthe location information. In addition, it will be recognized that theterm information refers to any suitable indicia.

The sending unit 2200 which may be a suitable server in a network, node,or any other suitable device, includes one or more circuits which may bein the form of one or more processing devices that execute softwareinstructions that are stored in memory, or may be implemented usingdiscrete logic, or any suitable combination of hardware, software orfirmware to carry out the operations described herein. As such, thesender unit 2200 includes circuits that are operative to carry out thesteps as described above.

In another embodiment, the use of the sender authentication article maybe combined for example with the systems described above with respect tothe translucent identification member such that the translucentidentification member includes the location information and senderauthentication information thereon. For example the obscured identifiersif desired may also serve as the sender authentication information or inan alternative embodiment the translucent identification member may havea portion that includes the obscured identifiers and another portionthat includes the location information and sender authenticationinformation. In any event, use of a single article or member which istranslucent as described herein can provide multi-level authentication.For example, for sender authentication, the methods described above withrespect to FIGS. 18-22 may be employed to confirm that the sender isauthentic. Once a recipient for example is convinced that the sender ofan email is authentic, the recipient may then click on a URL sent in theemail message and then be presented with a suitable HTML form to enteraccount information or other confidential information. However, prior toentering this confidential information a second level of authenticationmay be carried out employing the translucent identification member andobscured identifiers so that the sending unit can authenticate therecipient at this stage of the session or transaction. It will also berecognized that any other suitable ordering of operations orcombinations of the authentication schemes may also be employed.

In addition use of the claim terms includes any representation thereof.For example the term sender authentication information includes the dataitself, any index to the data, any reference or pointer to the data, orany other representation thereof.

Among other advantages, there need not be any modification to a messagetransfer agent or email client of a recipient. Also if desired, norecipient computers need to be registered allowing authentication to beperformed from any computer if desired. The system may also beapplicable to mobile devices where lookup coordinates can be easilydisplayed on a small display screen. Other authentication purposes mayinclude web authentication, interactive voice response authentication orany authentication scenario. In addition, the system and methods offer atype of inexpensive mechanism such as the authentication cards that canbe distributed versus more complex technologies that may require smartcards, tokens or public key infrastructures. Other advantages will berecognized by those of ordinary skill in the art.

FIG. 24 illustrates one example of a system 2400 that provides mutualauthentication between a user (e.g. recipient unit) and a sender unit,also referred to as a target resource. As described for example withrespect to FIGS. 18-23 and elsewhere, in this example, the article 1800serves as an authentication card which is assigned to each end user andincludes, for example, random and/or unique markings known only by thesender unit (e.g. target resource) and the end user. By providingevidence of that knowledge to the recipient, the sending unit candemonstrate its identity and by the end user causing the recipient unitto return information located in the authentication card, the end userdemonstrates his/her identity as the proper end user.

As noted above, the system 2400 may include a sender authenticationmember issuer 2202 that produces the article 1800 based on, for example,recipient specific information 32 (i.e. user authentication information)which may be, but is not limited to, for example a password and/or userID. The system 2400 also includes sender unit 2402 which may be a serveror any suitable device as previously described and may also include, asnoted above, a group of servers or circuits that carry out theoperations described herein. The system 2400 also includes a database2404 similar to the databases previously described which, in thisexample, also stores the user authentication information 32 to allow afirst level user authentication operation to be carried out. Inaddition, as described above, the database 2404 also stores the senderauthentication information that is located on the article as well as thearticle identifier so that the sender unit 2402 may provide the secondlevel authentication process as described herein.

The sender unit 2402 also includes, for example, memory that containsexecutable instructions that when executed by one or more processingdevices operates as a first level user authenticator 2406 and a secondlevel authenticator 2408. As noted above, it will be recognized howeverthat these operations may be carried out by separate servers or othercomputing units located or accessible through the Internet, an intranetor any suitable network. It will also be recognized that thecommunications described herein may be communicated wirelessly forexample where the recipient unit 20 is a wireless handheld device orother suitable portable wireless device.

Referring also to FIG. 25, a method for providing mutual authenticationbetween a user and a sender unit, such as a target resource, isdescribed. The article as noted above may include a transaction card, acard not having any transaction information, a translucent card, anelectronic card (e.g. visually displayed card) that may be, for example,stored in memory on the recipient unit or any other suitable unit andthen displayed to a user upon user request or automatically in responseto receipt of the challenge, or the article may take any other suitableform. Also, the location information sent in the challenge includes, forexample, electronically transmitted data for display in a displaydevice. As noted above, this may take the form of row and columninformation or any other suitable information that may be electronicallytransmitted and, for example, displayed on display 30 for the user oraudibly presented. It will be assumed that for this embodiment, a userhas received the sender authentication article 1800 and in this exampleit is not a translucent article so that no visual filter need be used inthis example. However, it will be recognized that the operationsdescribed herein may be suitably carried out for any suitable articleincluding a translucent card or article. This method may be carried out,for example, by the system shown in FIG. 24, or by any suitable systemor structure. In this example, article identification information neednot be sent to the recipient unit by the sender unit 2402. However, itmay be, if desired. In this example, the sender unit 2402 repeatedlychecks to see whether a reply to a sent challenge includes senderauthentication information that was identified by location informationin a sent challenge matches expected (e.g., that desired by the sender)sender authentication information. If not, the challenge is repeatedlysent multiple times during a session, or over multiple sessions untilthe desired sender authentication information that is received by thesending unit matches the expected authentication information.

Although not shown in FIG. 25, a first level authentication process maybe initially carried out. For example, this may include receiving userauthentication information 2410 that may include, for example, a userpassword and user ID, from the recipient unit 20, and hence the user.This is received, for example, by the first level user authenticator2406. The first level user authenticator 2406 then authenticates theuser based on the received user authentication information 2410 by usingthe user authentication information 32 obtained, for example, from thedatabase 2402. If they match, user authentication is successful. A “yes”indication 2412 is then sent to the second level authenticator 2408indicating that a second authentication process may be carried out. Itis preferable, for example, also that during the first levelauthentication process, a lock out mechanism is implemented such as onethat limits the number of authentication attempts during this firstlevel authentication process preventing a brute force attack. Uponsuccessful completion of the first step of authentication, the user isprompted to authenticate with article specific information as describedbelow.

As shown in block 2500, the method includes determining, for a user thathas been assigned the article 1800, desired sender authenticationinformation that corresponds to sender authentication information thatis embodied on the article. This may be done, for example, by the secondlevel authenticator 2408 suitably selecting sender authenticationinformation from the database 2404 that is located on the article 1800based on the user authentication information 32. As noted above, thisindicia on the article is stored by the sender authentication memberissuer 2202 in the database 2404. The sender authentication informationcan be located on the article 1800 by a user by using the locationinformation, such as row and column identifiers, or any other suitablelocation information as described above.

As shown in block 2502, the method includes sending, such as by thesender unit 2402, a challenge for the user that includes at leastlocation information that identifies the desired sender authenticationinformation that can be located on the article 1800. A challenge mayinclude, for example, one or more coordinate sets that are for example,displayed to a user via display 30. The challenge is preferablyparticular to each user and must be retrieved, based on the identity oruser authentication information from the first level user authenticationprocess. This ensures that the user is presented with the same challengeuntil successful authentication is complete. The repeating of the samechallenge can prevent an attacker from mounting a brute force attackbased on knowledge of only a few of the user's card contents which, forexample, may have been obtained using various potential attackmechanisms. The randomly generated challenge is then carried out andstored once the user has successfully authenticated through a secondlevel authentication process. The challenge 2414 may be sent in anysuitable manner and may take any suitable form including, but notlimited to, an SSL communication or non-secure communication if desired.As shown in block 2504, the method includes receiving a reply to thesent challenge. In this example, a reply designated as 2416 is receivedfrom the recipient unit 20 and is generated by the recipient unit undercontrol of the user, for example, using the location information sent inthe challenge 2414, such as a row and column ID to determine senderauthentication information located on the card. The user enters thisinformation through a suitable user interface in response to thechallenge. As such, with respect to the embodiment of FIGS. 24-28, thereply includes desired (desired by the sender unit) senderauthentication information obtained from the article. This replyinformation, although referred to as “sender authentication information”is actually used to authenticate the user by the sender unit, or otherentity, since the reply contains information only obtainable by theholder of the authentication card.

As shown in block 2506, the method includes determining, such as by thesender unit 2402, whether the received reply to the challenge includesthe desired sender authentication information that was identified by thelocation information sent in the challenge. As shown in block 2508, ifthe received sender authentication information in the reply is not thedesired sender authentication information that was identified in thechallenge by the location information, the sender unit 2402, in thisexample, then resends the same challenge containing the same locationinformation that was previously sent, to the recipient unit 20. As shownin block 2510, the method includes repeating the steps of analyzing thereceived reply and if the reply does not include sender authenticationinformation that was expected based on the location information sent inthe challenge, the sender unit sends the same challenge during the samesession, until the received reply includes the desired senderauthentication information that is on the article or until a suitablenumber of tries have been attempted as set by the sender unit, forexample. The challenge is repeated until the reply includes the expecteddesired sender authentication information.

FIG. 26 illustrates another method for providing mutual authenticationbetween a user and a sender and may be carried out, for example, by thesystem 2400 of FIG. 24, or any other suitable system or devices. In thisexample, the repeated sending of the same challenge until a proper replyis received, is not carried out. In this embodiment, articleidentification information, such as a serial number located on thearticle, or any other suitable article identification is also sent tothe user in addition to the location information in a challenge. Asshown in block 2600, the method includes determining, such as by thesender unit 2402, desired sender authentication information thatcorresponds to sender authentication information that is embodied on thearticle and also determining for the same user, corresponding articleidentification information, such as the serial number on the article orshared secret or any other suitable identification information. As shownin block 2602, the method includes sending a challenge for the user thatincludes the determined location information and article identificationinformation for authenticating the sending unit to the user.

As shown in block 2604, the method includes authenticating the userbased on a reply to the challenge wherein the reply includes senderauthentication information obtained from the article, based on thelocation information. In this example, the user does not, for example,enter or send a reply to the challenge unless the user verifies that thearticle identification information sent in the challenge, matches thearticle identification information on the article itself. As such, theuser may authenticate the sending unit based on the articleidentification information. As such, in this example, the challengeincludes article identification information in addition to the locationinformation. The reply includes the sender authentication informationlocated on the article, defined by the location information. If thearticle identifier in the challenge matches the article identifier onthe article that is in the possession of the user, then the user truststhe sending unit. As shown in block 2606, the method includesauthenticating the user based on the reply to the challenge. In thisexample, again a first level of authentication is preferably carried outthat was previously described based on a user password and/or user ID.If that level of authentication is successful, then the method shown inFIG. 26 may be suitably carried out. As also noted, the articleidentification information may include a shared secret known to the userand to the sender or may be an article serial number, or any othersuitable information.

FIG. 27 illustrates another method for providing mutual authenticationbetween a user and sender which effectively combines some of theoperations shown in FIGS. 25 and 26. As shown in block 2700, the methodincludes, performing a first authentication process such as by promptingfor first level user authentication information. This may include, forexample, the sending unit sending a request or providing a prompt forthe user to enter a password and user ID. In response, the sending unitreceives the first level user authentication information such as apassword and stored user authentication information 32 (e.g. a hash ofthe received password) is verified to ensure that the received firstlevel user authentication information is proper. As shown in block 2702,if the first level authentication is successful, the method includesdetermining for the user the desired sender authentication informationthat corresponds to the sender authentication information that isembodied on the article and determining, for example, articleidentification information that can be located on the article. As such,in this example, both location information and article identificationinformation are sent in a challenge. The steps previously described withreference to FIGS. 25 and 26 are then carried out such that, forexample, a challenge is repeatedly sent wherein the challenge is thesame challenge until proper sender authentication information isreceived in a reply. As such, the user confirms that the display of anarticle identifier from the challenge matches the identifier on theircard. This authenticates the sender unit or target organization as onlyit and the end user have knowledge of this identifier. The user inputs asuitable response to the challenge by looking at the contents of theircard at the location information sent in the challenge. The sending unitcan verify the reply and authenticate the user as only the end user withthis card can correctly respond to the challenge. It will be recognizedthat the operations were described in the context of, for example, theInternet but the operations are equally applicable to other channels ofcommunication such as interactive voice response or any other suitablecommunication system. For example, where interactive voice response isused, a user prompt would be provided by voice over a wireless or wireline telephony network from, for example, an automated system. A userresponse would be provided via touchtone keypads instead of, forexample, through web form input. Any other suitable communication systemmay also be used.

Among other advantages, the described apparatus systems and methodsprovide secure authentication of both the end user and sending unit ortarget organization and may be relatively easy to use and relativelyinexpensive to produce and distribute such as the authentication cardsversus more complex technologies such as smart cards, hardware tokens orpublic key infrastructures. In addition, the system may be readilyimplemented using web clients across multiple communication channels formobile devices, non-mobile devices, voice activated devices or any othersuitable devices.

FIG. 28 diagrammatically represents the operations described above. Forexample, as shown by communication 2800, a user is presented with aconventional user name and password login screen and enters their username and password and sends it as a login response 2800 to the senderunit 2402 which then performs an authentication process, as known in theart, by comparing the received password and user ID to those stored inthe password database 2802, for example. If validation is successful,the sender unit 2402 sends a challenge 2414 to a recipient unit with,for example, a user's card identifier and challenge which includeslocation information so that the user can locate specific indicia on thecard. This challenge is, for example, displayed for the user on therecipient unit. The user confirms the received card identifier with thecard identifier on the authentication card in the user's possession andanswers the challenge by sending a reply 2416 back to the sender unit2402. This reply is then validated by the sender unit to validate theuser to complete mutual authentication. However, if the second levelauthentication is not successful, the sender unit will repeatedly sendthe same challenge, namely the same location information back to therecipient unit until a proper reply has been received.

In FIG. 29, an alternative method of authenticating a user of arecipient unit is shown for when the user is off-line. When the user ison-line with a sender unit 2920 through a recipient unit 2915, one or aplurality of challenge-reply sets 2975 can be stored in memory 2960 ofthe recipient unit 2915. The memory 2960 may be any type of storagedevice that can store the challenge-reply set 2975. For example, thememory 2960 may include one or more magnetic or optical storage devices,or any other suitable memory device. The memory 2960 may be configuredin any suitable manner such as a cache or non-cache memory. Eachchallenge-reply set 2975 is associated with an article 1800 based onprior on-line communications of the recipient unit 2915 with the senderunit 2920. Each challenge-reply set 2975 includes at least achallenge-reply pair 2965 and 2970, which is stored in the memory 2960of the recipient unit 2915 during on-line authentication of the user sothat a particular resource on the recipient unit 2915 is available tothe user. When the user is off-line and if only one challenge-reply set2975 is stored in the memory 2960, the stored challenge-reply set 2975is selected for off-line authentication of the user for the particularresource available through the recipient unit 2915. When the user ifoff-line and a plurality of challenge-reply sets 2975 are stored in thememory 2960, at least one of the plurality of the stored challenge-replysets 2975 is selected for off-line authentication of the user for theparticular resource available through the recipient unit 2915.

The article 1800 by which the user can reply to challenges by the senderunit 2920 may be any one of the authentication articles that aredescribed above with respect to the various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. For example, referring back to FIG. 18, the article 1800 maybe a translucent or non-translucent film, sticker, card, or any othersuitable article. It will be recognized that the information shown onthe article 1800 is shown as one example only and it will be recognizedthat any suitable information may be used. In the example shown in FIG.18, the article 1800 includes location information 1802 and 1804 (shownas row and column indicia) respectively and sender authenticationinformation 1806 in the form of numbers that are addressable orlocatable by the coordinate location information (e.g. row and columninformation). In addition, the article 1800 includes an optional articleidentifier 1808 such as a serial number generated (e.g. assigned) by theissuer of the article 1800. However, one of ordinary skill in the artwill recognize that the article 1800 may be any one of theauthentication articles described with respect to the variousembodiments of the present disclosure, or any may take any suitableshape or form.

The sender unit 2920 which may be a suitable server in a network, node,or any other suitable device, may include one or more circuits which maybe in the form of one or more processing devices that execute softwareinstructions that are stored in memory, or may be implemented usingdiscrete logic, or any suitable combination of hardware, software orfirmware to carry out the operations described herein. As such, thesender unit 2920 includes circuits that are operative to carry out thesteps as described above and in the following. The sender unit 2920 maycommunicate directly with the recipient unit 2915. Alternatively, thesender unit 2920 may also include a network interface for communicatingeither directly or through the Internet 26, an intranet, or any suitablenetwork with the recipient unit 2915. The network interface may beoperatively coupled to the processing device of the sender unit 2920.

The sender unit 2920 may also include memory that contains executableinstructions that when executed by one or more processing devicesoperates as a first level user authenticator 2905 and a second levelauthenticator 2920. As noted above, it will be recognized however thatthese operations may be carried out by separate servers or othercomputing units located or accessible through the Internet 26, anintranet or any suitable network. It will also be recognized that thecommunications described herein may be communicated wirelessly forexample where the recipient unit 2915 is a wireless handheld device orother suitable portable wireless device.

The recipient unit 2915 which may be a suitable server in a network,node, or any other suitable device, may include one or more circuitswhich may be in the form of one or more processing devices that executesoftware instructions that are stored in memory, or may be implementedusing discrete logic, or any suitable combination of hardware, softwareor firmware to carry out the operations described herein. As such, therecipient unit 2915 includes circuits that are operative to carry outthe steps as described above and in the following. The recipient unit2915 may communicate directly with the sender unit 2920. Alternatively,the recipient unit 2915 may also include a network interface forcommunicating either directly or through the Internet 26, an intranet orany suitable network with the sender unit 2920. The network interfacemay be operatively coupled to the processing device of the recipientunit 2915.

The recipient unit 2915 may also include memory that contains executableinstructions that when executed by one or more processing devicesoperates as a first level user authenticator 2406 and a second levelauthenticator 2408. As noted above, it will be recognized however thatthese operations may be carried out by separate servers or othercomputing units located or accessible through the Internet, an intranetor any suitable network. It will also be recognized that thecommunications described herein may be communicated wirelessly forexample where the recipient unit 20 is a wireless handheld device orother suitable portable wireless device.

Referring to FIG. 29, when a user wishes to login to the recipient unit2915 to use one or more resources of the recipient unit 2915, such asbut not limited to software applications, device processes, peripheraldevices, files, other stored data or any entity that requiresauthentication of a user prior to gaining access, a first levelauthentication process may be initially carried out. For example, thismay include receiving user authentication information 2935 that mayinclude, for example, a user password and user ID, from the recipientunit 2915, and hence the user. This is received, for example, by thefirst level user authenticator server 2905. The first level userauthenticator server 2905 then authenticates the user based on thereceived user authentication information 2930 by using the userauthentication information obtained, for example, from the database2910. If they match, user authentication is successful and a secondlevel authentication of the user may be carried out.

During the second level authentication process, the user may be providedwith a number of challenges 2945, to which the user can provide a reply2950 with the information contained on the article 1800. For a user thathas been assigned the article 1800, a challenge can be requested fromthe sender unit 2920. The challenge may be a sender authenticationchallenge that may require a reply that contains information that can befound on the article 1800 in response to location information sent in achallenge. For example, the sender authentication information can belocated on the article 1800 by a user by using the location information,such as row and column identifiers, or any other suitable locationinformation as described above.

The challenge-reply set 2975 may include, as described in detail in theforegoing, second level user authentication, such as a challenge for theuser that includes at least location information that identifies thedesired sender authentication information that can be located on thearticle 1800. A challenge 2945 may include, for example, one or morecoordinate sets that are for example, displayed to a user via therecipient unit 2915. The challenge 2945 may be particular to each userand must be retrieved, based on the identity or user authenticationinformation from the first level user authentication process. Therandomly generated challenge is then carried out and stored in thememory 2960 of the recipient unit 2915 once the user has successfullyauthenticated through a second level authentication process. Thus, whenthe user is on-line, one or a plurality of the challenge-reply sets 2975are stored, i.e., stored, on the memory 2960 of the recipient unit 2915.The challenge 2945 may be sent in any suitable manner and may take anysuitable form including, but not limited to, an SSL communication ornon-secure communication if desired. The challenge 2945 may also bebased on cryptographic information prior to being sent to the user. Forexample, the cryptographic information may be based on a hash function.

In addition to one or more challenge-reply pairs, each challenge-replyset may include user identification information, identificationinformation of the article 1800, time entry data, a flag to indicatewhether the stored challenge-reply set has been used off-line, thenumber of times the stored challenge-reply set has been used off-line,and/or an identification of the particular resource of the recipientunit that is accessible to the user upon completion of successfulauthentication of the user.

FIG. 30 illustrates the above-described method for providing mutualauthentication between the recipient unit 2915 and the sender unit 2920,such as a target resource, wherein one or a plurality of challenge replysets are stored in the recipient unit 2915. The disclosed methoddetermines at block 3015 whether the user is on-line. If the user ison-line, the recipient unit 2915 requests a challenge from the senderunit 2920. The challenge is then sent to the user at block 3025. Theuser replies to the challenge as described in detail in the foregoing.At block 3030, the reply is sent to the sender unit 2920. The recipientunit 2915 receives confirmation of the authentication from the senderunit 2920 at block 3035. At block 3040, the recipient unit 2915 stores acopy of the challenge-reply set 2975 in the memory 2960 thereof foroff-line re-use.

When a plurality of challenge-reply sets 2975 are to be stored in thememory 2960, each time the recipient unit 2915 attempts a successfullogin with the sender unit 2920 and completes a successfulchallenge-reply set, the recipient unit 2915 can store the successfulchallenge-reply set 2975 in the memory 2960 thereof. When only onechallenge-reply set 2975 is to be stored in the memory 2960, each timethe recipient unit 2915 attempts a successful login with the sender unit2920 and completes a successful challenge-reply set, the recipient unit2915 can store the challenge-reply set 2975 in memory. The storing ofthe challenge-reply set 2975 may entail overwriting the previouschallenge-reply set 2975 stored in the memory 2960.

Alternatively, however, the challenge-reply sets 2975 that are stored inthe memory 2960 may not be based on successful login attempts. Each timea user logs in to the recipient unit 2915 and the recipient unit 2915 isonline with the sender unit 2920, the sender unit 2920 may send therecipient unit 2915 challenge-reply sets to store in the memory 2960that are not based on a successful login of the user. For example, whilethe user is logged on to the sender unit 2920, one or a plurality ofchallenges and the corresponding replies based on the article 1800 thatare not necessarily duplicative of any of the user's successfulchallenge-reply sets can be stored in the memory 2960.

The number of challenge-reply sets 2975 that may be stored in the memory2960 may be predetermined and limited by either the user of therecipient unit 2915 or the sender unit 2920. For example, as describedpreviously, only one challenge-reply set 2975 may be stored in thememory 2960 for off-line use. Accordingly, the user may be provided withonly one off-line login to the recipient unit 2915. For example, if aplurality of challenge-reply sets 2975 are to be stored, a maximumnumber of ten successful challenge-reply sets 2975 may only be stored inthe memory 2960 of the recipient unit 2915. When the number ofchallenge-reply sets 2975 stored in the memory 2960 of the recipientunit 2915 is at the predetermined maximum, the recipient unit 2915 mayeither stop storing additional challenge-reply sets 2975 into the memory2960, or continue storing successful challenge-reply sets 2975 in thememory 2960 by overwriting the current stored challenge-reply sets 2975so as to not exceed the predefined maximum number of challenge-replysets 2975 that may be stored in the memory 2960. However, the number maynot be predetermined and can be selected by the user through a suitableGUI interface from the recipient unit 2915.

In FIG. 31, the method for providing a particular resource availablethrough the recipient unit 2915 to the user when the user is off-line isdescribed. At block 3110, the recipient unit 2915 determines whether theuser is off-line or online. If the user is online, the recipient unit2915 will follow the flow chart shown in FIG. 30 at block 3010. Asdescribed above, when a plurality of challenge-reply sets 2975 arestored in the memory 2960, the user of the recipient unit 2915 may belimited to only a predetermined number of logins to the sender unit 2920when the user is off-line. Accordingly, if the recipient unit isoff-line, the method will proceed to block 3113 where the recipient unit2930 determines whether the challenge-reply authentication attempts aregreater than or equal to the predetermined allowed maximum limit. If thechallenge-reply authentication attempts are greater than or equal to thepredetermined allowed maximum limit, the method will proceed to block3155 of FIG. 32. If the challenge-reply authentication attempts are notgreater than or equal to the predetermined allowed maximum limit, themethod will proceed to block 3115 of FIG. 31 where the recipient unitwill select one of the stored successful challenge-reply sets 2975stored in the memory 2960 thereof. If only one challenge-reply set 2975is stored in the memory 2960, the method may skip block 3113 and proceeddirectly from block 3110 to block 3115 where the recipient unit willselect the stored challenge-reply set 2975 stored in the memory 2960.The recipient unit 2915 then allows the user to logon to the recipientunit 2915 based on one of the stored challenge-reply set 2975 in thememory 2960.

As shown in block 3120, the recipient unit 2915 presents to the user theselected challenge information from memory. The challenge informationmay be presented to the user visually and/or audibly on a display of therecipient unit 2915. The user responds to the challenge information bysending a reply as shown at block 3125. At block 3130, the user's replyis compared to the stored reply that corresponds to the challenge towhich the user responded. As shown by the decision block 3135, if theuser's reply to the challenge is the same as the stored reply, the useris granted access to the resources of the recipient unit 2915 as shownat block 3145. Because the user has used a successful challenge-replyset 2975, at block 3140, the recipient unit increments the usagecounter, i.e. the number of times a challenge-reply set 2975 is used, toindicate challenge-reply set 2975 used and grant authorization. Themaximum predetermined number of off-line authentication attempts may beassigned to a flag, i.e., a variable. If the challenge-replyauthentication attempts are greater than the predetermined allowedmaximum limit, i.e., the counter greater than the flag, at block 3155the user is notified by the recipient unit 2915 to take other action.The other action may simply entail the user contacting the administratorof the sender unit 2920 to receive a passphrase to access the resourcesof the recipient unit 2915, as will be described in the following.

When a user successfully completes an online authentication, a randomsecret passphrase is generated by the sender unit 2920, optionallyprotected cryptographically (e.g., hashed), and automatically sent bythe sender unit 2920 and stored in the memory 2960 of the recipient unit2915 without the user's knowledge. The passphrase is also saved in thesender unit 2920 under the user's identification information along withthe identity of the recipient unit 2915 on which the passphrase was alsostored after a successful authentication. Should the user need to accessthe resources of the recipient unit 2915 but has exceeded the number ofallowed offline authentication attempts, the user can contact theadministrator of the sender unit 2920 to receive the passphrase. Theuser can then use the passphrase to access the recipient unit 2915 afterthe passphrase given to the user by the administrator of the sender unit2920 and the passphrase stored in the recipient unit 2915 match.

Referring to FIG. 33, another method of providing authentication of auser of a the recipient unit 2915 when the user is off-line is shown. Inthe method shown in FIG. 33, the recipient unit 2915 may not storesuccessful challenge-reply sets 2975 into the memory 2916 each time theuser is online with the sender unit 2920. In the method shown in FIG.33, successful challenge-reply sets 2975 are stored in the recipientunit 2915 only when the user requests such storage of thechallenge-reply sets 2975 into the memory 2960 of the recipient unit2915. For example if the user knows that he will be using the recipientunit 2915 without being online with the sender unit 2920, prior to goingoff-line, the user can request a group of challenge-reply sets 2975 tobe stored in the memory 2960 of the recipient unit 2915 as shown atblock 3315 of FIG. 33. Such request is sent to the sender unit 2920 andreceived by the sender unit 2920 as shown by block 3330. The sender unit2920 responds to the request by sending to the recipient unit a group ofchallenge-reply sets 2975 for storing into the memory 2960. As shown byblock 3320 the recipient unit 3305 receives the challenge-reply sets2975 and stores the challenge-reply sets 2975 in the memory 2960. Oncethe challenge-reply sets 2975 are stored in the memory 2960, therecipient unit 3305 can go off-line and the user is allowed to accessthe resources of the recipient unit 2915 while off-line by responding tothe challenge-reply sets 2975 that are stored in the memory 2960 asdescribed in detail in the foregoing. Each time such a request is madeby a particular user of a recipient unit 2915, the sender unit 2920triggers an on-line refresh of the receive request and respond torequest procedures shown at blocks 3330 and 3340 in accordance withstore laws implemented at block 3345 for such receive and respondrequests.

The recipient unit 2915 may be used by a single user to access thesender unit 2920. The recipient unit 2915 may be any suitable device,such as but not limited to a laptop computer, a mobile phone, a PDA oran email device, that may be used offline such as when a user istraveling and cannot perform on-line authentication. When the user ison-line with the sender unit 2920, prior to the recipient unit 2915storing a plurality of challenge-reply sets 2975 in the memory 2960 ofthe recipient unit 2915, the recipient unit 2915 clears (e.g.,overwrites or removes data) a portion of the memory 2960 of recipientunit 2915 where a plurality of challenge-reply sets 2975 from a previoususer had been stored. Accordingly each time a new user is on-line withthe sender unit 2920, the recipient unit 2915 may clear the memory 2960prior to storing the number of challenge-reply sets 2975 for the currentuser of the recipient unit 2915.

The recipient unit 2915 may be used by multiple users to access thesender unit 2920 when the recipient unit 2915 is offline. When each useris online with the sender unit 2920, the recipient unit 2915 stores aplurality of challenge-reply sets 2975 for that particular user in asegment of the memory 2960. Accordingly, challenge-reply sets 2975 foreach user are stored in segments of the memory 2960 that is allocated tothat user. Therefore, each segment of the memory 2960 cannot beoverwritten with challenge-reply sets 2960 of another user. Therecipient unit 2960 may also include multiple memories 2960 such thateach memory 2960 is allocated to each user. When each user desires touse the resources of the recipient unit 2915 offline, the segment of thememory 2960 for that user is accessed and the second factorauthentication of the user is performed as described herein. Theadministrator of the sender unit 2920 may select whether the recipientunit 2920 can be used offline by a single user or multiple users.

As described in the foregoing, the challenge-reply sets 2975 may beoverwritten with new challenge-reply sets 2975. This occurs, forexample, when the number of stored challenge-reply sets 2975 is at themaximum allowed limit and any additional challenge-reply sets overwritethe stored challenge-reply sets 2975. When the recipient unit 2915overwrites a stored challenge-reply set 2975 for the reasons describedin the foregoing, the replacing of the stored challenge-reply set 2975may be based on randomly replacing the challenge-reply sets 2975 in thememory 2960, replacing the oldest challenge-reply set 2975, replacingthe newest challenge-reply set 2975, replacing the most usedchallenge-reply set 2975, and/or replacing the least usedchallenge-reply set 2975.

When the user is being authenticated for off-line use of the recipientunit 2915, one or more of the stored challenge-reply sets 2975 stored inthe memory 2960 of the recipient unit 2915 may be used for theauthentication. The present disclosure provides for selection of thechallenge-reply sets 2975 for off-line authentication based on randomlyselecting, selecting the oldest, selecting the newest, selecting themost used, and/or selecting the least used of the stored challenge-replysets 2975.

To provide the above-described functionality of the recipient unit 2915for off-line authentication of the user, a set of executableinstructions or a software program may be stored on the recipient unit2915 that when executed provides the above-described functionality. Anexample list of the functionality provided by the software program maybe as follows: provide the connectivity with the sender unit 2920 whenthe user is online to receive challenge-reply sets 2975 for off-lineauthentication, keep track of the number of attempted off-lineauthentications of the user by incrementing a flag variable when anoff-line authentication is attempted, selecting the storedchallenge-reply sets 2975 for off-line authentication based on any oneof the methods described above, and/or managing different users off-lineand online authentication with the recipient unit 2920.

The number of challenge-reply sets 2975 stored in memory 2960 istypically less than all possible challenge-reply sets 2975 from thearticle 1800. Under certain circumstances, the administrator of thesender unit 2920 may wish to allow the user of the recipient unit 2915to access the recipient unit as many times as desired when the recipientunit is off-line. Accordingly, the number of challenge-reply sets 2975available in the memory 2960 of the recipient unit 2915 may not belimited to a predetermined number of challenge-reply sets 2975. Undersuch circumstances, when the recipient unit logs into the sender unit2920, all possible challenge-reply sets 2975 from the article 1800 or asubset thereof may be stored in the memory 2960 of the recipient unit2915. When a user attempts to use the resources of the recipient unit2915 when the recipient unit 2915 is off-line, a challenge-reply set2975 is generated for the user of the recipient unit 2915 based on oneof all possible combinations of challenge-reply sets 2975 based on thearticle 1800. Accordingly, the above-described software program of therecipient unit 2915 may provide the on-line challenge and replyprocedure as described in the foregoing to authenticate the user basedon all the stored challenge-reply sets 2975 from the article 1800.However, when another user uses the recipient unit 2915 and logs intothe sender unit 2920 and is online with the sender unit 2920 through anetwork or by communicating with the sender unit 2920, allchallenge-reply sets 2975 that were stored in the memory 2960 of therecipient unit 2915 will be automatically removed (e.g., cleared oroverwritten) by the recipient unit 2915 so that all of less than allchallenge-reply sets 2975 for the new user based on the article 1800 ofthe new user can be stored in the memory 2960.

The sender unit 2920 may include a Graphic User Interface (GUI) thatallows the administrator of the sender unit 2920 to determine a desiredoffline authentication security scheme on a per user or group basis. Forexample, the GUI may include pull down menus to allow the administratorof the sender unit 2920 to select one of a number of offlineauthentication security schemes to send to the recipient unit 2915 inresponse to a request from the recipient unit 2915. The security schemesthat can be selectable by the administrator of the sender unit 2920 mayinclude the number of challenge-reply sets 2975 that can be stored onthe memory 2960 of the recipient unit 2915. Additionally, the securityschemes that can be selectable by the administrator of the sender unit2920 may include the types of challenge-reply sets 2975 that can bestored on the memory 2960 of the recipient unit 2915. For example, theGUI of the sender unit 2920, may include a pull down menu, by which theadministrator of the sender unit 2920 can select the security scheme tosend to the recipient unit 2915. The selectable security schemes mayinclude the recipient unit 2915 storing online previously successfulchallenge-reply sets 2975, sending to the recipient unit 2915 apredetermined number of challenge-reply sets 2975, all of the possiblechallenge-reply sets 2975 that may be available on the article 1800, orless than all of the possible challenge-reply sets 1800 that may beavailable on the article 1800.

As described above, the method and apparatus provides a second factorauthentication for a recipient unit 2915 when the recipient unit 2915 isoffline relative to a sender unit 2920. The method and apparatus enablesa recipient unit 2915 to respond to a unique, one-time authenticationchallenge issued by a sender unit 2920, which may be an authenticationserver 2905, when the recipient unit 2915 is not connected to a networkand cannot access the authentication server 2905.

The method and apparatus provides a secure method of offlineauthentication using a dynamic one-time challenge-reply sets 2975 whilethe sender unit 2920 is unavailable to the recipient unit 2915. Themethod and apparatus does not have an inherent expiry based on time. Theuser can remain offline for undetermined periods of time while stillallowing for the authentication method to function. Additionally, therecipient unit 2915 can automatically take all the necessary steps toprepare for offline authentication. Accordingly, should the sender unit2920 inadvertently go offline because of network failures or otherreasons, the offline authentication method allows for the user tocontinue to use second factor to authentication. Even if the sender unit2920 goes offline, the security policies of an organization that employsthe present method and system are still enforced and two-factorauthentication is maintained on the recipient unit 2915. Otheradvantages will be recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art.

It is therefore contemplated that the present invention cover any andall modifications, variations or equivalents that fall within the spiritand scope of the basic underlying principles disclosed above and claimedherein. For example, the methods need not be used with two levels ofauthentication but may serve as a single level of authentication.

Persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that, although theteachings of the invention have been illustrated in connection withcertain embodiments, there is no intent to limit the invention to suchembodiments. On the contrary, the intention of this application is tocover all modifications and embodiments fairly falling within the scopeof the teachings of the invention.

1. A method for providing authentication of a user of a recipient unit,comprising: based on an online communication with a sender unit, storingat least one challenge-reply set associated with an article, the atleast one challenge-reply set including at least a challenge-reply pairfor use in off-line authentication of the user for a particular resourceavailable through the recipient unit; and selecting, for off-lineauthentication of the user for the particular resource available throughthe recipient unit, the at least one stored challenge-reply set.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein storing the at least onechallenge-reply set comprises storing at least one challenge-reply setfor each user of a plurality of users of the recipient unit based ononline communication of each user with the sender unit, wherein the atleast one challenge-reply set corresponding to each user is selected foroff-line authentication of each user for the particular resourceavailable through the recipient unit.
 3. The method according to claim1, wherein storing the at least one challenge-reply set comprisesstoring at least one challenge-reply set in cache memory.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the recipient unit is a wirelesscommunication device.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein thechallenge-reply pair is based on a successful challenge and reply. 6.The method according to claim 1, wherein the challenge is based onsender authentication information that can be located on the article byusing location information.
 7. The method according to claim 6, whereinthe number of stored challenge-reply sets is less than all possiblechallenge-reply sets available on the article.
 8. The method accordingto claim 6, wherein the challenge identifies the location information asrow and column information on a card.
 9. The method according to claim1, wherein the stored challenge-reply set includes, in addition to thechallenge-reply pair, data representing at least one of: useridentification information, article identification information, timeentry data, a flag to indicate whether the stored challenge-reply sethas been used off-line, a number of times the stored challenge-reply sethas been used off-line, and an identification of the particular resourceof the recipient unit accessible to the user upon completion of asuccessful authentication of the user.
 10. The method according to claim1, wherein the at least one stored challenge-reply set is based on acryptographic transformation.
 11. The method according to claim 10,wherein the cryptographic transformation is based on a hash function.12. The method according to claim 1, wherein storing the at least onechallenge-reply set comprises clearing the stored challenge-reply setand storing at least one new challenge-reply set upon receiving from thesender unit a confirmation of authentication of the user with articleidentification information different from the article identificationinformation stored in the recipient unit.
 13. The method according toclaim 1, comprising storing a plurality of challenge-reply setsassociated with the article, wherein selecting comprises selecting atleast one of the plurality of challenge-reply sets.
 14. The methodaccording to claim 13, wherein storing the plurality of challenge-replysets comprises replacing a stored challenge-reply set when attempting toadd a challenge-reply set to a number of stored challenge-reply setsalready having a predefined maximum number of challenge-reply sets. 15.The method according to claim 13, wherein storing the plurality ofchallenge-reply sets comprises replacing a stored challenge-reply setbased on at least one of: randomly replacing, replacing the oldest,replacing the newest, replacing the most used, and replacing the leastused.
 16. The method according to claim 13, wherein storing theplurality of challenge-reply sets comprises requesting any one of agroup of challenge-reply sets from the sender unit and storing the groupin response to receiving the group.
 17. The method according to claim13, wherein storing the plurality of challenge-reply sets comprisesrequesting from the sender unit all possible challenges andcorresponding replies associated with the article, and upon receivingfrom the sender unit all the challenges and corresponding repliesassociated with the article, storing all the challenges andcorresponding replies associated with the article.
 18. The methodaccording to claim 13, wherein selecting is based on at least one of:randomly selecting, selecting the oldest, selecting the newest,selecting the most used, and selecting the least used of the at leastone of the plurality of stored challenge-reply sets.
 19. The methodaccording to claim 1, comprising providing a first level ofauthentication prior to selecting the at least one storedchallenge-reply set for further authentication of the user.
 20. A methodfor providing authentication of a user of a recipient unit, comprising:selecting, for off-line authentication of the user for a particularresource available through the recipient unit, at least one of aplurality of stored challenge-reply sets; receiving a reply from theuser corresponding to a sent challenge for each of the selected at leastone of a plurality of stored challenge-reply sets; comparing thereceived reply to a stored reply for a match; and approvingauthentication of the user upon matching the received reply to thestored reply corresponding to the sent challenge for the each of theselected at least one of the plurality of stored challenge-reply sets.21. The method according to claim 20, wherein approving authenticationof the user includes incrementing a usage counter for each of theselected at least one of the plurality of stored challenge-reply sets.22. The method according to claim 20, wherein selecting is based on atleast one of: randomly selecting, selecting the oldest, selecting thenewest, selecting the most used, and selecting the least used, of the atleast one of the plurality of stored challenge-reply sets.
 23. Themethod according to claim 20, wherein the challenge is based on senderauthentication information that can be located on the article by usinglocation information.
 24. The method according to claim 23, wherein thenumber of stored challenge-reply sets is less than all possiblechallenge-reply sets available on the article.
 25. The method accordingto claim 23, wherein the challenge identifies the location informationas row and column information on a card.
 26. A method for providingauthentication of a user of a recipient unit, comprising: storing, atthe recipient unit, at least one challenge-reply set used inauthenticating the user when the recipient unit is online with a senderunit; and using the stored challenge-reply set to authenticate the userwhen the recipient unit is off-line.
 27. The method according to claim26, wherein the stored challenge-reply set is based on successfulpreviously used challenge-reply set.
 28. The method according to claim26, further comprising using a secret passphrase to authenticate theuser of the recipient unit when the recipient unit is off-line andchallenge-reply authentication attempts exceed a predetermined maximumnumber.
 29. The method according to claim 26, wherein the challenge isbased on sender authentication information that can be located on thearticle by using location information.
 30. The method according to claim29, wherein the number of stored challenge-reply sets is less than allpossible challenge-reply sets available on the article.
 31. The methodaccording to claim 20, wherein the challenge identifies the locationinformation as row and column information on a card.
 32. A recipientunit for use by a user, comprising: at least one processor; and at leastone memory device, coupled to the at least one processor, having storedtherein executable instructions that, when executed by the at least oneprocessor, cause the at least one processor to: store, based on anonline communication with the sender unit, at least one challenge-replyset associated with an article, the stored challenge-reply set includingat least a challenge-reply pair for use in off-line authentication ofthe user for a particular resource available through the recipient unit;and select, for off-line authentication of the user for the particularresource available through the recipient unit, the at least one storedchallenge-reply set.
 33. The recipient unit of claim 32, wherein storingthe at least one challenge-reply set comprises storing at least onechallenge-reply set for each user of a plurality of users of therecipient unit based on online communication of each user with thesender unit, wherein the at least one challenge-reply set correspondingto each user is selected for off-line authentication of each user forthe particular resource available through the recipient unit.
 34. Therecipient unit of claim 32, wherein storing the at least onechallenge-reply set comprises storing at least one challenge-reply setin cache memory.
 35. The recipient unit of claim 32, wherein therecipient unit is a wireless communication device.
 36. The recipientunit of claim 32, wherein the challenge-reply pair is based on asuccessful challenge and reply.
 37. The recipient unit of claim 32,wherein the challenge is based on sender authentication information thatcan be located on the article by using location information.
 38. Therecipient unit of claim 37, wherein the number of stored challenge-replysets is less than all possible challenge-reply sets available on thearticle.
 39. The recipient unit of claim 37, wherein the challengeidentifies the location information as row and column information on acard.
 40. The recipient unit of claim 32, wherein the storedchallenge-reply set includes, in addition to the challenge-reply pair,data representing at least one of: user identification information,article identification information, time entry data, a flag to indicatewhether the stored challenge-reply set has been used off-line, a numberof times the stored challenge-reply set has been used off-line, and anidentification of the particular resource of the recipient unitaccessible to the user upon completion of a successful authentication ofthe user.
 41. The recipient unit of claim 32, wherein the at least onestored challenge-reply set is based on a cryptographic transformation.42. The recipient unit of claim 41, wherein the cryptographictransformation is based on a hash function.
 43. The recipient unit ofclaim 32, wherein storing the at least one challenge-reply set comprisesclearing the stored challenge-reply sets and storing at least one newchallenge-reply set upon receiving from the sender unit a confirmationof authentication of the user with article identification informationdifferent from the article identification information stored in therecipient unit.
 44. The recipient unit of claim 32, comprising storing aplurality of challenge-reply sets associated with the article, whereinthe selecting comprises selecting at least one of the plurality ofchallenge-reply sets.
 45. The recipient unit of claim 44, whereinstoring the plurality of challenge-reply sets comprises replacing astored challenge-reply set when attempting to add a challenge-reply setto a number of stored challenged-reply sets already having a predefinedmaximum number of challenge-reply sets.
 46. The recipient unit of claim44, wherein storing the plurality of challenge-reply sets comprisesreplacing a stored challenge-reply set based on at least one of:randomly replacing, replacing the oldest, replacing the newest,replacing the most used, and replacing the least used.
 47. The recipientunit of claim 44, wherein storing the plurality of challenge-reply setscomprises requesting any one of a group of challenge-reply sets from thesender unit and storing the group in response to receiving the group.48. The recipient unit of claim 44, wherein storing the plurality ofchallenge-reply sets comprises requesting from the sender unit allpossible challenges and corresponding replies associated with thearticle, and upon receiving from the sender unit all the challenges andcorresponding replies associated with the article, storing all thechallenges and corresponding replies associated with the article. 49.The recipient unit of claim 44, wherein selecting is based on at leastone of: randomly selecting, selecting the oldest, selecting the newest,selecting the most used, and selecting the least used of the at leastone of the plurality of stored challenge-reply sets.
 50. The recipientunit of claim 32, wherein the at least one processor provides a firstlevel of authentication prior to selecting at least one of the pluralityof stored challenge-reply sets for further authentication of the user.51. A sender unit comprising: at least one processor; and at least onememory device coupled to the at least one processor and having storedthereon executable instructions that when executed by the at least oneprocessor, cause the at least one processor to send, to the recipientunit at least one challenge-reply set in response to receiving a requestfrom the recipient unit.
 52. The sender unit of claim 51, wherein theexecutable instructions when executed by the at least one processor,cause the at least one processor to send, to the recipient unit aplurality of challenge-reply sets in response to receiving a requestfrom the recipient unit for any one of a group of challenge-reply sets.53. The sender unit of claim 51, wherein the at least one processorsends to the recipient unit a plurality of challenge-reply sets for allpossible challenges and corresponding replies associated with an articlein response to receiving a request from the recipient unit for the allpossible challenges and corresponding replies.
 54. The sender unit ofclaim 51, wherein the challenge is based on sender authenticationinformation that can be located on the article by using locationinformation.
 55. The sender unit of claim 54, wherein the number ofstored challenge-reply sets is less than all possible challenge-replysets available on the article.
 56. The sender unit of claim 54, whereinthe challenge identifies the location information as row and columninformation on a card.
 57. A recipient unit for use by a user,comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory devicecoupled to the at least one processor and having stored thereonexecutable instructions that when executed by the at least one processorcause the at least one processor to: select, for off-line authenticationof the user for a particular resource available through the recipientunit, at least one of a plurality of stored challenge-reply sets;receive a reply from the user corresponding to a sent challenge for eachof the selected at least one of the plurality of stored challenge-replysets; compare the received reply to a stored reply for a match; andapprove authentication of the user upon matching the received reply tothe stored reply corresponding to the sent challenge for the each of theselected at least one of the plurality of stored challenge-reply sets.58. The recipient unit of claim 57, wherein approving authentication ofthe user includes incrementing a usage counter for each of the selectedat least one of the plurality of stored challenge-reply sets.
 59. Therecipient unit of claim 57, wherein selecting includes selecting basedon at least one of selecting randomly, selecting the oldest, selectingthe newest, selecting the most used, and selecting the least used of theat least one of a plurality of stored challenge-reply sets.
 60. Arecipient unit for use by a user, comprising: at least one processor;and at least one memory device coupled to the at least one processor andhaving stored thereon executable instructions that when executed by theat least one processor cause the at least one processor to: store at therecipient unit successful challenge-reply sets used in authenticatingthe user when the recipient unit is online with a sender unit; andauthenticate the user when the recipient unit is off-line using thestored challenge-reply sets.
 61. The recipient unit of claim 60, whereina secret passphrase is used to authenticate the user of the recipientunit when the recipient unit is off-line and challenge-replyauthentication attempts exceed a predetermined maximum.
 62. Therecipient unit of claim 60, wherein the challenge is based on senderauthentication information that can be located on an article by usinglocation information.
 63. The recipient unit of claim 62, wherein thechallenge identifies the location information as row and columninformation on a card.
 64. A method for providing authentication of auser of a recipient unit, comprising: receiving a reply from the usercorresponding to a sent challenge for at least one storedchallenge-reply set; comparing the received reply to the stored replycorresponding to the sent challenge for a match; and approvingauthentication of the user upon matching the received reply to thestored reply.
 65. A recipient unit for use by a user, comprising: atleast one processor; and at least one memory device coupled to the atleast one processor and having stored thereon executable instructionsthat when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least oneprocessor to: receive a reply from the user corresponding to a sentchallenge for at least one stored challenge-reply set; compare thereceived reply to a stored reply for a match; and approve authenticationof the user upon matching the received reply to the stored replycorresponding to the sent challenge.
 66. The recipient unit of claim 57,wherein the executable instructions when executed by the at least oneprocessor cause the at least one processor to: select at least one of aplurality of stored challenge-reply sets; receive a reply for each ofthe selected at least one of the plurality of stored challenge-replysets; and approve authentication of the user upon matching the receivedreply to the stored reply corresponding to the sent challenge for theeach of the selected at least one of the plurality of storedchallenge-reply sets.
 67. The recipient unit of claim 66, whereinapproving authentication of the user includes incrementing a usagecounter for each of the selected at least one of the plurality of storedchallenge-reply sets.
 68. The recipient unit of claim 66, whereinselecting includes selecting based on at least one of selectingrandomly, selecting the oldest, selecting the newest, selecting the mostused, and selecting the least used of the at least one of a plurality ofstored challenge-reply sets.
 69. A method for providing authenticationof a user of a recipient unit, comprising: receiving a request from therecipient unit for at least one challenge-reply set; and sending the atleast one challenge-reply set to the recipient unit in response to therequest.
 70. The method according to claim 69, wherein the request isfor previously successful online challenge reply sets.
 71. The methodaccording to claim 69, wherein sending in response to the requestcomprises sending at least one of: a plurality of previously successfulchallenge-reply sets; all possible challenge-reply sets; and less thanall of the possible challenge-reply sets.
 72. The method according toclaim 69, wherein the challenge is based on sender authenticationinformation that can be located on the article by using locationinformation.
 73. The method according to claim 72, wherein the number ofstored challenge-reply sets is less than all possible challenge-replysets available on the article.
 74. The method according to claim 72,wherein the challenge identifies the location information as row andcolumn information on a card.
 75. A system comprising: a sender unit anda recipient unit for use by a user, the sender unit and the recipientunit adapted for communication with each other, the sender unitoperative to send to the recipient unit at least one challenge-reply setin response to receiving a request from the recipient unit; and therecipient unit operative to: store the at least one challenge-reply setsent from the sender unit; receive a reply from the user correspondingto a sent challenge for the at least one stored challenge-reply set;compare the received reply to the stored reply for a match; and approveauthentication of the user upon matching the received reply to thestored reply corresponding to the sent challenge.
 76. The system ofclaim 75, wherein the challenge is based on sender authenticationinformation that can be located on the article by using locationinformation.
 77. The system of claim 76, wherein the number of storedchallenge-reply sets is less than all possible challenge-reply setsavailable on the article.
 78. The system of claim 76, wherein thechallenge identifies the location information as row and columninformation on a card.